


Our Future Together

by CartoonJessie



Category: Moana (2016)
Genre: ;-) promise, Basically my idea for a sequel :-P, F/M, Sequel, but satisfying, much more of a drama/romance than an epic adventure
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-31
Updated: 2017-02-09
Packaged: 2018-09-13 19:25:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 59,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9137977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CartoonJessie/pseuds/CartoonJessie
Summary: [My Hooked Wayfinder sequel to Moana] Cause you can’t always find happiness right where you are… Especially when the great demigod Maui has been avoiding you for years because he is terrified of watching you grow old. Cue angst. Cue adventure. Cue romance. Featuring… An ageless demigod manchild afraid of attachment… A heroin determined to give him a home… And an entire island filled with the ridiculously stupid offspring of Heihei.





	1. Together Alone

**Author's Note:**

> Multi-chaptered. Will probably end up as mature or explicit in later chapters. At this moment appropriate for all ages.

One of the things that struck Moana as odd after restoring the heart of Te Fiti, was that Maui hadn't sought out the approval or attention of her fellow tribesmen.

She had been convinced that he would love to retell their tale, to brag about their adventures, to boast about their impressive feats. After he had spent a thousand years in isolation on that desolate island, making statues of himself, carving his own images in the rocks and coming up with songs about how great he was and who knew what else, she had assumed that that sort of attention was what he lived for.

But he was already gone by the time she returned to her island and reunited with her parents.

Yet later that evening, when she told their tale to the people of her tribe, he was there - or at least she thought it was him as she saw a suspicious little beetle fly by and sit down on a low-hanging branch in a nearby tree, only to fly up the moment the story was told and her people wanted to dance in celebration instead. Whether it had been him or not, she had truly felt like it was him, and hoped it hadn't just been her wishful thinking.

As time passed, she saw him regularly - though he was never human, and he never lingered for more than a minute. She sometimes saw him fly over the island as a hawk, and often he circled above her, as though he was just saying hi, before he went off again, disappearing on the horizon. She never outed him to the rest of her tribe, who were surprised by the sight of such a large bird, but did not seem to consider that it was actually the demigod Maui.

Sometimes she would not see him for a week, other times a month, but he always returned at some point, and sometimes, when her duties allowed it and she could make her way out, she chased him, her heart filled with happy thoughts and high hopes as she ran after him, stopping her chase the moment her feet touched the water of the ocean, watching him disappear where she could not follow.

He never flew down, nor did he acknowledge her in any other way. He just passed her, and sometimes she wondered if she was going a little crazy - if their adventures had all just been in her imagination - for she could not make sense of him, looking after her in one way, not talking to her in another. Weren't they friends? Was there no part of him that wanted to catch up? Didn’t he have anything to tell her?

Who knew what went through a demi-god's mind? She certainly didn't.

As the rain season came to an end, Moana started voyaging again - most of the times with her father and fellow tribesmen, on rare occasions by herself. Motunui had suffered from the blight. Not many coconut trees could be harvested that year. And though fish had returned to the waters, their numbers had shrunk and the effects of the blight could still be felt by everyone. Their island simply wasn't strong enough to ensure a prosperous life anymore. They were surviving - they were still alright - but it was harder - and her leadership was tested every single day as their supplies continued to shrink.

The voyages she undertook were to find other islands, to bring back valuable resources to her own home, and to scout for better lands to live.

It took them months to find the island of their dreams - the new Motunui, full of fertile soil and fruit trees, with several freshwater sources and a beautiful reef, and as her fellow voyagers stayed behind to prepare the island for the arrival of the others, Moana journeyed back on her own, eager to tell her father of the amazing place they had found. This island was what they had been looking for.

As the night fell and she measured the stars against her hand, she felt confident that she would be home in another day or less. Though she loved to sail and to practice her wayfinding, she did feel a little lonely sometimes - or rather, very lonely. Crushingly so. The ocean was always in her sight, but like Maui, the ocean too had grown quiet. Sometimes she doubted the ocean as much as she doubted Maui.

Had they both been figments of her imagination? Or had they simply stopped caring?

She shook her head, forbidding herself to think like that, but she could not wave away these doubts so easily.

Was she going to continue doubting her own memories every day from now on? Had that adventure been the biggest of her lifetime, and would nothing ever surpass it? She often felt like nothing would be able to beat it. Dangerous as it had been, she had loved every second of it and missed it a lot, especially in those lonely hours that it was just her and the water and the dark night sky all around her.

She sat a little straighter though when she saw something glimmer above her, far away from her, yet she felt a familiar ache in her heart at the sight of it.

It was Maui! He was in his hawk-form - flying in the distance - possibly not even having seen her.

She wondered if he could hear her as she started crying out his name, trying to draw his attention. She had always refrained from doing so before, but this time there wasn't an entire island of people around her, judging her for crying out to a bird as though she was a mad woman.

As she saw the hawk change direction and head her way, she could not help but jump up and down impatiently, not minding the rocking of the boat at all, and when he was close enough to see his eyes, he surprised her by suddenly turning into a shark and falling into the ocean in front of her, splashing her while he did so.

She laughed, not minding the water at all, and sat down on her knees to look at him as he surfaced again, and as she held out her hand, he bumped his nose into her palm. She smiled, though her expression fell when he suddenly dove underneath the water, and when he did not resurface, she looked down along all sides of her ship, not spotting him anywhere in the darkness. As a minute passed, and then another, she wondered if he had gone again - if he had not even had anything to tell her, no adventure to share or anything. The disappointment crushed her.

"Maui?" she asked in a weak voice, wondering if he was still close enough to even hear. "Where did you go?"

Upon getting no response, her voice only become more desperate: "Ocean? Maui? Why..." Her voice broke a little as she softly continued: "Why have you both abandoned me?"

Tears came to her eyes and would not stop streaming down her cheeks as she sobbed quietly, soon hiding her face in her hands in an effort to control her own emotions - but she just felt so alone, like her own solitude was crushing her heart, and she only looked up from her own hands when she suddenly heard a splash in front of her.

As she looked up, she saw a wave in front of her, almost like it was tilting its head to look at her, and her tears became tears of joy.

"Ocean!" she cried out happily, and as she heard another splash to the side of the boat and saw a familiar figure climb on, she felt overwhelmed. "MAUI!"

She rushed to him and threw her arms around his neck as she jumped up, counting on him to carry her full weight.

Though he was surprised, he had no problem doing just that, and he held her close for a brief hug, perhaps a moment longer than he usually allowed himself to indulge in such a thing.

As he set her down again, he looked at her with a grave expression, worried, just like the ocean was.

"Why would you ever think we abandoned you?" he asked softly.

She felt a little silly now, ashamed of her tears and voicing her fears, but that did not mean that she hadn't truly believed it to be true.

"I never see you guys anymore," she said in a small voice, hardly daring to look at him, and instead she looked down at the space between their feet.

She saw how his massive hand reached out for her small one, and she could not help but look up at him again when she put her hand in his. She wasn't sure if she was imagining it, but even he seemed to have some sadness in his eyes - the same sadness that she had felt since the moment they had parted ways.

"But I've flown by so many times... I thought you saw me... You even chased me a couple of weeks ago."

She offered him a sad smile. "But we never talk anymore."

"Because you don't need me anymore," he replied carefully, gesturing to the ocean as well. "You don't need the ocean anymore either. You're doing marvelous, all by yourself. You are a great leader to your people - the best wayfinder of your tribe - an inspiration to others - a true hero!"

Tears came to her eyes again, and she was unable to stop them from falling, realizing that Maui didn't understand why she was crying after his high praise.

"If all those things are true, then why do I feel so alone?" she asked miserably.

Her voice was shaky, and she hoped that Maui understood. He had to understand - if not him, then who would?

He was quiet for a long while, that same hero's loneliness something that often weighed down heavily on his heart as well.

Moana couldn't help but look down at his chest as she saw some movement there - the mini Maui tightly embracing the mini Moana, and as she watched her mini-version hug mini-Maui so happily, she wondered if Maui actually wanted to hug her too - didn't mini-Maui represent his heart?

As Maui followed Moana's gaze, he nervously put his hand over his tattoo, hoping she hadn't seen that. Her gentle smile and slight blush told him otherwise, and he bit his lip as he tried to figure out what to say next. Luckily, it seemed like he didn't need to say anything at all, she had already found some answers to her own questions.

"I've always stood out from the crowd - that's what grandma Tala said as well. She passed the exact same day that I left my island to look for you. She always understood me better than anyone, and I had no time to miss her when I ran into you. But then... you and the ocean were suddenly gone from my life as well. Though... not fully gone - still there for me to see - and perhaps that's what hurts most. You guys were right there, but had nothing to say. And I had no one else to talk to..."

Maui frowned, not understanding. "But your mother and father and the other villagers? You were never alone, Moana!"

"I still felt alone..."

She realized how pathetic she had to sound and sighed in frustration, sitting down at the edge of her canoe, dangling her feet in the ocean, noticing how the ocean itself still seemed to be looking at her, gently coming closer as though it was trying to comfort her with its presence alone.

Maui sat down by her side, his hands folded in his lap as he honestly admitted: "I thought you were doing alright - great even. I honestly didn't know you were... hurting."

"I feel pathetic," Moana admitted, closing her eyes. "I had this amazing adventure with you guys - and ever since it's been over, I've been trying to find something similar, but even discovering new islands doesn't compare. You'd think it would!" She was frustrated with herself and clenched her fists. "Why can't I be happy with what I've got? I thought all I wanted was to be on the ocean, and though I still love the ocean and spending my time wayfinding, there's this growing gap of emptiness!"

Maui had been rather quiet as he had listened to her, but only because he recognized some of these things in himself.

"I've lived for so long," Maui said softly. "And the way I see it... There are always going to be moments of emptiness. But in those moments when you feel empty, think of those moments that you didn't... Those moments that you're proud of will give you the courage to continue... And new and better moments might still wait for you beyond the horizon. Just... keep on doing those things you love doing, and you'll find more moments... And hopefully one day, the loneliness will be gone."

As he looked up at the moon, Moana followed his gaze and thought about it.

"Maui?"

He hummed softly, and Moana bit her lip before she blurted out: "May I come on another adventure with you?"

He turned to her in surprise, a frown on his face.

Anxious that he was going to dismiss her, she quickly said: "I still think about what we went through every day... I never felt so alive, and I think we make a great team!"

He smiled sadly. "You think that's what I do all day? Have adventures?"

Now Moana was quiet, and he had his hand on his heart again, hiding the mini Maui and Moana underneath from her sight.

"I have about twelve tattoos on my body... twelve stories that were amazing or terrifying adventures. Twelve moments in over a thousand years of living. Do you know how many days passed for me in between those big moments? Years - centuries..." He sighed again. "I can't just summon an adventure at will, these things just... come. And trust me, not every time that you have a big moment will you emerge from the adventure feeling like a hero."

The regret in his tone was clear, and Moana had seldom felt so bad for anyone. How had she dared to complain when Maui had had it worse all his life? For the past thousand years he had been stuck on that island, and here she was complaining about how boring her life was while she was exploring new lands, leading her people and spending her days with her mother and father, who loved her dearly. He was alone - all the time - and his parents had tossed him in the ocean as a child. How did she even dare to complain? She had to appear so obnoxiously spoiled to him, yet he did not voice any of that.

"Don't you feel like a hero then?" she asked softly, and his immediate and harsh laugh already answered her question. He honestly didn't believe himself to be a hero, not anymore, and this confused her.

"Do you wanna know what I've been doing these past months? After we parted ways?" He didn't even wait for an answer but just continued, staring into the water as he tried to keep his voice light - but he sounded frustrated and annoyed with himself more than anything. "I've been checking out the islands that I used to visit in the past. The islands that were close to Te Fiti. I used to visit those tribes to restock on supplies or just to see how those people were doing in general. There were at least fourteen islands that once held thriving societies. Now there's absolutely nothing there. No one lives there anymore. All gone. And I can't find them anywhere!"

Moana remained quiet as she noticed his quiet rage and the way these findings hurt him.

He looked angry with himself as he continued. "Who was the one who messed with Te Fiti? Me! And in doing so, she spread the darkness across the ocean and so many lives were destroyed. But Te Fiti is not to blame. I am. Just me. I'm responsible for the deaths Te Fiti caused. I'm no hero. I don't deserve my fish hook or any of my tattoos, least of all yours. My selfishness and greed almost destroyed the world!"

He had expected her to think over his words and realize that it was the truth, but she did something he found far stranger. She wrapped her small arm around his big one and leaned with her head against his shoulder, looking out over the water as she kept him company.

"You are more than your selfishness and greed," she offered gently. "You are also strength and compassion. You have more to offer this world than you believe right now, but you can't let yourself believe that the world is better off without you. I don't believe that for one second. You matter. If not to anyone else, then at least to me."

He gulped, his hand still over his heart. He had an inkling of how hard mini Maui and mini Moana were hugging it out, but he wasn't mini Maui. He wasn't capable of telling her how much she meant to him precisely, of allowing himself to grow closer to her. He was already getting too close again.

He had not intended to talk to her at all today, but after he had transformed himself into a shark, he had remained close, following her underneath her own canoe, surprised to hear her ask why they had abandoned her. There had been such despair in her voice, it had hurt him, and he had been unable to remain hidden. Knowing she was in pain, even emotional pain, was a thought that was hard for him to bear. After what they had been through, he would do anything for her, even if it ripped out his own heart at the end of the day.

"Come home with me," she said softly, but he pulled away his arm from her grip at those words, realizing he was only fooling himself by staying so close to her.

"I can't," he said immediately, his voice louder than he had intended it.

She was just as quick to reply but kept her distance, not wishing to impose herself upon him. "Why not?"

He remained quiet, turning his head away from hers, half his mind made up to jump off her boat, turn into a shark, and head out to never return. But that thought alone broke his heart too. He liked seeing her from a distance - smiling at her people, leading them into a bright future. He just liked seeing her.

He liked her.

And he did not know how to voice the turmoil of emotions in his heart, or the dark thoughts in his mind, even if he desperately needed to voice these frustrations to someone - anyone.

"You can have a home on New Motunui..." she offered hopefully. "You can live with my tribe and be loved. Isn't that what you always wanted?"

He still had his face turned away from her and sat perfectly still, frowning to himself.

"Maui..." Her voice was hardly more than a whisper as she tried to get him to open up. "I know I can't force you to tell me what's wrong... but I'll listen. I'll always listen to you - whenever you need me."

His voice was cold as he replied, still not looking at her. It was always easier when he didn't have to look into her beautiful eyes.

"You won't."

"Of course I will!" she replied immediately, but that only angered him further.

"No, you won't!" His voice began to break, and he hated it, but he could not stop the words that came from his mouth. "Today you will. And tomorrow. And next week and next month and next year. But then, one day, you'll die. And I won't. And I'll want to talk and you won't be there to listen. And that's that!"

He said that as though it concluded the entire conversation, his voice high, but stubborn, and his eyes still turned away, hiding his own tears from her. He concluded that her silence meant that he was right - there was no other way. He was a demigod, and she a mere mortal, and all he wanted, was to hold her, like Mini Maui did Mini Moana - but unlike Mini Moana, the girl that was sitting beside him would one day disappear. And he'd be alone with no one to hold, and that was the hardest thought he had had in a lifetime.

Finally turning to her, though not really looking at her, he continued cruelly: "You know, sometimes I wish you had never found me. A thousand more years on that island would hurt less than having to say goodbye to you."

They were both crying now, and as he realized that she felt as miserable as he did, he looked away again. He had made her cry - his beautiful, kind and brave Moana. In tears. Because of him.

"Look at how great a friend I am. You needed someone to cheer you up, and though I intended to do that, look at you now. My intent always turns out to be completely meaningless. I have proven that time and time again. I shouldn't be around people. For your sake - and mine."

His fist clenched around his hook, convinced he was right, and before Moana could take his hand or stop him in any other way, he had changed into a hawk again and he flew off as fast as he could, leaving Moana dazed for a moment, but screaming his name the next, over and over and over again, until her lungs were sore.

"Come back!" she cried. "Maui, no!"

As he disappeared on the horizon, she was inconsolable, crying not just for her sake, but mostly for his, and while the ocean remained near and guided her ship back to Motunui on gentle waves, Moana lay there and cried, her heart aching even more than it had before.


	2. The Plan

The following day, Moana woke to the sound of her tribesmen finding her boat, stranded on the beach. As they called out in worry, she got up, a headache coming up fast as she realized she needed something to drink. She had cried all night - until morning had come and she had finally fallen asleep. As she looked up at the sun, she realized it was nearly noon now, and she wasn't feeling very good.

She wanted to run and hide and cry about what had happened that night, and she did not understand the worried looks on the faces of her tribesmen until they asked if the others were alright.

Guilt swarmed her in that moment. She had almost made it look as though something terrible had happened, while it truly hadn't - not to them at least. Everyone was safe and sound and she had joyous news to tell, even if she felt miserable, and she mustered up her best fake smile as she told them about the island that had been found, and how the others had stayed behind to prepare it for their arrival.

As Moana was led to her father and mother, she did not dare to look them in the eye straight away. She could not tell them – not there and then, with everyone watching – not without breaking down completely.

Chief Tui and Sina always knew when something was wrong with their daughter, and with the way Moana dodged their gazes, they only needed a second to realize that something was horribly off and that they needed time alone with their daughter. They had just asked for some privacy and led Moana into their hut, when she began to cry again.

As her parents embraced her, she could not express what was going through her heart or mind. Though they tried to get her to talk, she simply couldn't find the words, and so they let her cry for now, stroking her hair and offering her coconut milk so she could calm down a bit.

By the time she had found the strength to talk again, she told her parents of the new island, and they still didn't understand what had broken their daughter's heart so much as she described how big the new island was and how there was an abundance of fruit trees and freshwater sources. None of what she told them seemed like a valid reason for her to be so heartbroken, and when she was done praising their new island, she added in a small voice: "And I spoke to Maui last night."

Things were beginning to click for Tui and Sina.

During Moana’s first weeks back, they had teased her about introducing them to her demigod friend. After realizing that the demigod had no further interest in them, and that this was a sensitive subject for Moana, they had stopped the teasing, and now they realized that Maui had meant even more to their daughter than they had originally thought.

"What did he say?" Tui demanded to know, his brow already furrowed as he considered the possibility that this demigod had willingly hurt his daughter.

Moana's lip trembled as she finally replied: "He said he wished that I'd never found him."

Her parents still didn't understand, but how could they? They only knew Maui from stories. They didn't know his insecurities and pain - they only knew him from the legends and heroics and the mischief.

"Why?" Sina asked softly, gently taking her daughter's hand.

Moana looked bitter as she continued, but only because she found it unfair that Maui would hold this against her. It wasn’t like it was her fault.

"Because he doesn't want me to die..."

Tui and Sina exchanged a confused look with one another, and as Moana noticed it, she sighed and explained: "We're friends - and he doesn't want to spend more time with me out of fear he will miss me too much when I die."

Her father's look of confusion only increased, and he remarked: "Moana, you won't die for... for like another fifty years or so!"

"Fifty years might be long to us, but it's like... like a month to Maui or something. He is over a thousand years old!"

Her mother gently added: "Sorry to say, Moana, but for a demigod his age, he is behaving like a teenager - no offense."

As Moana thought about it, she realized that her mother was right. Maui did behave like someone her age, unsure what to do with all these bad emotions within himself, just like she found it difficult to deal with her feelings of loneliness and boredom. They were both selfish sometimes, but also confused and hurting... And over what?

Okay, so maybe Maui had a good reason for keeping his distance, but what kind of life was he leading if he didn't allow himself to get close to anyone?

"I want him to be a part of our island," she admitted in a determined voice. "He has never had a home among humans - he has always traveled - and he needs to be loved."

Tui and Sina now exchanged a rather terrified expression, wondering what their daughter was thinking precisely. Sina already imagined Moana throwing herself at the demigod’s feet, and Tui was wondering how on earth he was ever going to give a demigod a stern talking-to regarding his daughter’s well-being.

"He was tossed in the ocean as a baby!" Moana explained, and to this Sina gasped.

"Maui?!"

Moana nodded quickly, glad that her mother immediately seemed to understand how this explained his behavior. "The Gods saved him, and he's been doing all these great things to get the love of humans."

"The way I understand it, he has your love already," Tui said seriously, and this time there was no judgement or blame in his tone at all. He knew Moana’s heart was pure. He just wasn’t sure about Maui’s. "And yet, he isn't here. Are you sure love is what he truly wants?"

"I don't know," Moana said honestly, no longer crying, though she still felt miserable. "A part of me thinks we're not good enough for him - yet another part of me tells me that he thinks he isn't good enough for us." She sighed sadly. "I just wish I could speak to him, but I don't know if I'll ever see him again."

"I'm certain you will," Tui said with a smile, and Moana looked up in surprise. Her father put his hand on her shoulder as he continued: "Let us agree upon something. We shall journey to the new island and settle in. You will lead us there. And then, once we're all set, you go and find him. And you drag him by the ear and tell him that we're making a hut, just for him, and he's living with us, whether he wants to or not!"

Moana couldn't believe what she was hearing, and she could not stop her smiling as her father spoke those words.

"We're going to make a hut for him?" she asked happily, liking the sound of that.

"He needs a home, Moana. Everyone does," her mother said kindly. "And his parents may have tossed him into the ocean, and Gods may have saved him, but I don't think anyone has ever offered him a home. It's about time we change that."

Overflowing with hope again, Moana embraced her parents tightly, thanking them a dozen times over before they continued planning.

With new hope in her heart, she discussed her island's migration, hoping that by the time she went out to look for Maui, he wasn't on the other side of the world.


	3. Reunion

Maui travelled a lot further than Te Fiti this time - to a place where he knew Moana had never gone - where she would never go.

The island was small, but beautiful and still spacious compared to the rock he had lived on for so long. And best of all - it was uninhabited, with no trace of civilization anywhere. The food supply was amazing. There were bananas, lilikois, coconuts, nonos, mangos and even more fruits that Maui had never encountered on his journeys. Compared to the past millennium, he had hit the jackpot. There were caves, waterfalls, a dense jungle, and dozens of types of birds, some he had never seen, and he wondered if he could learn to shapeshift into all of them.

He spent his days swimming, climbing the mountain, fishing, and decorating. Mostly decorating.

He started out by carving images in the rocks by the waterfall. Images he had never drawn before - of his latest adventure. Images of Tamatoa beating him, of being knocked out while Moana was trapped - of almost being eaten - of Moana distracting Tamatoa with her ingenious plan, of escaping together, swimming up as fast as they could, with the help of the ocean.

Then there were images of teaching Moana all he could about wayfinding, about facing the Kokomora, about fighting Te Ka, and Moana restoring the heart of Te Fiti.

He drew every moment he remembered, every day that he could. Even during rain season, he was outside, carving and drawing and remembering. Mini Maui and Mini Moana approved. They looked on as he drew one image after the other, and in those moments when he was fishing or climbing or doing anything else, they just held each other tightly, sadly, and he wondered if that would ever change.

His hair grew, until he no longer needed to see Mini Maui and Mini Moana all the time, but Moana was still on his mind, nearly every moment of every waking day.

With sadness in his heart, he begun a new project. Where he had erected a statue of himself on the stone island he had lived in before, he now carved out a statue of her. After months of work, he realized that it wasn't perfect - that her skin was actually softer, her nose a little smaller, her smile brighter, and he began working on another, on the other side of the island. And then another. And another.

He hardly noticed the time that went by, still remembering her fondly in every waking moment. But this was better, he told himself, and sometimes, he brushed his long hair to the side and watched Mini Maui as he held Moana tightly, though there always seemed to be sadness and blame in his small face as well, like he blamed Maui for only having memories of her, instead of actually seeing her anymore.

Like he had a choice. He always told himself that he didn't. (Even if a part of him knew better.)

He did not apologize for his decision to live like this. This was the only way he could live, and though his bittersweet memories hurt him, they were a source of comfort at the same time. It was nice knowing that Moana had cared for him - that he had been worth caring for - it was just that asking anyone to care for him too would be selfish. Besides, she was probably married by now, had some kids, and though he hated to admit it, he'd rather not know the lucky man that woke up next to her each morning. He'd probably punch the poor man in the face, just for existing.

One morning, on one of the hottest days of the year, he climbed the small mountain of his island like he did every day. There was one steep side to the mountain, and one sloped side, and he obviously always picked the steep side to climb. It was more of a challenge - though the challenge had sort of disappeared after doing this for thousands of days in a row. As he reached the top, he climbed in the highest tree and looked out over the ocean, not really expecting to see anything special until he noticed a ship, much closer to the island than he would have liked.

He felt a twinge of fear. What if these voyagers stole his supplies? What if they burned down his beautiful jungle? What if they broke his statues of Moana?

Feeling protective of his territory, he cursed the fact that he had left his hook in the cave where he slept each night, but he did not fear that his hook would be discovered any time soon. His cave was behind the waterfall - too high up for a mere mortal to reach.

He tried to come up with a plan to deal with the intruders. Now that he thought about it, he figured he should have set up some traps. He had spent more than enough time on the island to do just that, but that was the last thing he had thought of. Who could even have sailed this far? Surely it couldn't be anyone from Moana's tribe, they were simply too far away. Could it be other descendants from the tribes he had believed to have gone extinct? He could have felt excited about that prospect, but for now he raced as quickly as he could towards the beach, stopping at the edge of the jungle, hiding in the shadows as he saw the canoe that had already been pulled ashore. To his annoyance, the canoe was empty, and he was about to grunt in frustration when he heard a soft voice, quite a distance away from him. He moved as quietly as he could, closer to that voice, slightly surprised when he realized it was a woman's voice, alternating her humming with some singing, and as he got ever closer, he began to understand the words that were being sung.

"I will sail with pride, journey all year long, but each island is... just another wrong... if I don't find him, I'll never belong... Where on earth is he?"

It was a strange tune, not at all like the songs of his heroic deeds like those he had heard around the campfires many centuries ago, and as the woman came into sight, he stared at her backside, at hair that was held together in a massive bun, and a dress made of the finest blue dyes - unlike any Maui had ever seen. As the lady started climbing in one of his banana trees, he felt nervous, hoping she wasn't going to steal all his bananas, but as she reached the top, she suddenly halted, her hands reaching for the spot where he had snapped off some bananas a week earlier, and as she held her breath, so did he as he watched her from below.

He could not help but wonder what was going through this woman's mind. Had she just realized that there were other people on this island?

As she turned her head and looked around over the treetops of the jungle, as though she was scanning the island for any buildings, Maui got a glimpse of her face and he thought he saw something familiar as he looked up at her. When he heard her voice, however, was when he truly felt like he had been hit by lightning.

"Maui?" she whispered, her eyes still on the trees around her, not on the demigod that stood beneath her, his mouth wide open as his heart felt like it was about to explode from his chest.

"Moana?" he asked, hardly believing that the woman who had climbed the tree had once been the girl who had so innocently stolen his heart.

As shocking as it was for him to see her, it was even more shocking for her to hear his voice, and as she looked down, her mouth dropped - and in a clumsy turn of events, so did she. She shrieked as she fell down, but Maui's reflexes didn't leave anything to wish for, and he caught her before she could hit the ground, holding her tightly as she clung to his shoulders, out of breath and her eyes wide open as she stared into his, feeling like she had to be dreaming.

He could hardly believe it was her - but it truly was - he would recognize those beautiful eyes out of a million.

She had grown - that much was clear - not just a bit in height, but in width as well, no longer looking like a child, not even a youth. She was a woman now, and both pride and regret filled his heart at the same time.

As she looked at him, her surprised gaze turned into an emotional smile, and she lightly touched his hair, noticing how he had let it grow quite a bit.

"You caught me," she said breathlessly.

"What did you expect?" he asked her, smoother than he had ever thought he could in a moment like this.

At his cocky tone, she lifted an amused eyebrow, honestly replying: "That you'd drop me, proclaim me dead, and proceed with your day's activities without another thought of me."

He grinned as he realized what she was referring to. Truthfully, that had been what he had done when they had entered the realm of monsters, but things had changed since then.

"You were singing," he suddenly remembered, and at this, she blushed for a brief moment.

"And you didn't throw up!" she added jokingly, smiling brightly.

He could not help but grin at her, amazed that after all these years, she still remembered all those little things they had said to one another. It felt good knowing that he wasn't the only one who had treasured their memories.

He tried to take in everything about her, the very same necklace she had worn on their adventures - but the new dress had thrown him off, and her hair was different now, longer, and too big to be contained by her bun. She looked well - not just well-fed, but healthy too - and as he looked down her dress, he realized that she had grown in several other places as well, and he stopped himself from staring the moment she tried to get out of his arms, and he quickly put her down.

Clearing her throat, she erected herself to her full height before she looked him in the eye and proudly said: "Maui - shapeshifter - demigod of the wind and seas. Hero of men - and women – both – all!" She smiled knowingly at that part, before she continued: "I am Moana of New Motunui, and I have come to deliver you across the ocean, to your new home!"

She anxiously awaited his reply now, biting her lip nervously as she looked at him, and he frowned for a moment.

"My new home?" he replied weakly, not fully understanding what she meant.

"A house!" she explained eagerly. "On New Motunui, made especially for you over the course of ten years."

A horrific expression fell over him.

It couldn't be...

"It's been ten years?"

"Eleven!" she tried to say as lightly as she could, but she could not hide the unease from her eyes. It had been a long wait - too long a wait, perhaps.

"How... how old are you now?"

She had never seen him so pale, and she hesitated before she replied: "Twenty-seven."

He did the maths. "You were sixteen when we met?"

Trying to lighten the mood, she joked: "See, I tried to tell you that I wasn't eight!"

He did not laugh though, too paralyzed by her offer.

Upon realizing this, Moana's tone softened considerably, and she hugged her own arms as she continued: "You don't need to decide right away... I mean... If you want to consider it... I could... I could stay here for a night."

Her offer was too kind - just like her.

"How did you even know where to find me?" he asked her, still breathless about the fact that she had found him at all.

"I didn't," she tried to reply casually, but as she saw his confused frown, she explained: "I looked in-between every rain season for a trace of you... It's a good thing I found you now, cause in four days from now I would have needed to turn back to New Motunui or I would have run out of supplies. I had never traveled this far before!"

She seemed to be proud of that last fact, but her pride did not hide the despair in her eyes. It was clear to him that this was what she had waited for for a very long while, and he did not understand how she had thought him worthy of her devotion, even after the way they had said their last goodbyes.

He thought he had shattered her heart, just like his heart had been shattered by their miserable goodbye, but here she was...

Tears came to his eyes as he suddenly knelt down in front of her, taking her small hands in his big ones, bowing his head respectfully.

"Forgive me, Moana," he said emotionally. "You spent so much time of your mortal life looking for me... Time is so precious to you, and you wasted it on looking for me… I have no words."

Her voice was soft but emotional. “I don’t consider it a waste, Maui…”

Tears streamed down her cheeks as well. After over a decade, she could finally end this quest. She had found him - and she wanted to make one thing very clear to him.

In a strict tone she continued: "You showed great courage when you helped me restore the heart of Te Fiti. For that, I owe you a debt. And I can only repay you that debt by inviting you to New Motunui, our island that is thriving and anxious to greet you home. Don't you dare run away again! If you can't be with gods, then at least be with humans. We want to invite you into our lives, to keep you company. No one deserves a life of isolation."

As he looked up at her, there was such sadness in his expression that she felt her heart break all over for him, and her strict resolve crumbled again, making room for more tears as she knelt down in front of him as well, looking into his eyes as she begged: "Please, come home with me. I'm tired of spending year in, year out looking for you. And even if you run away now, I will just continue to look for you, no matter where you go. I would travel the world to find you, a dozen times over - or at least until I die. Please, Maui..."

He shut her up by embracing her so fiercely that it startled her, and he muttered: "I'm so sorry for what I did to you..." He cradled the back of her head in his hand, trying not to be too fierce. Though he felt very strongly in that moment, he had no intention to hurt her with his inhuman strength. It was hard being honest, but she needed to know, and his voice was soft as he admitted: "I wasted so much of your time, because I was afraid of losing you. But I've been losing you every day that I've been here. Every day I've thought of you - every hour - perhaps even every minute. And now you've aged and I've missed every minute of it, and I know that I don't like that either. I might as well spend time with you, because I have learned that I can't put you out of my head, whether it's unwise and you're mortal or not."

She was quiet for a long while, hugging him tightly in return, trying to make sense of what he meant.

There was love between them - there was no doubt about that - but when it came to defining that love, Moana just wasn't sure. Was it love between friends, or more a love between siblings? Or perhaps even a romantic love? She had too little experience with any of the others to know precisely where to classify it, and it appeared that he was just as unable to define it.

Maui could have sat there with her for an entire day - a week perhaps - just holding her, and he would have been perfectly content, but the sound of her stomach growling woke him.

"You're hungry!" he said in a compassionate tone. "Come, let me get you some food! You must be so hungry from travelling all the way here! I'll make you a feast fit for a God!"


	4. Waterfall Playtime

As they traveled through the small jungle, Moana could already hear the loud clattering of water before she saw its source. As she walked up to the river's bank, her mouth dropped from admiring the sight of the rocky waterfall a little further, with many luscious and colorful plants on either side of it. Each rock had beautiful carvings - and though she stood too far to see them in detail, she did notice one particular rock that took her breath away.

It was a statue - of her - and she felt her heart jump at the sight of it.

As she circled around the statue, admiring the detail in the texture of her hair and in the carving of her skirt, she felt honored that the great demigod Maui had spent time on making her such a tribute.

Maui kept his distance, feeling awkward that she had to see this. He hoped that she thought it was a flattering representation of her, and that she didn't feel creeped out by it.

Comparing the woman before her to the statue he had made years ago, he realized how much she had changed.

His Moana was a woman now - and it terrified him to ask her about her life at home. Though he had already agreed to go with her, he knew he could not bear the thought of going to New Motunui with her, only to watch her disappear in some hut with some beautiful man that had won her heart while he had been out here, carving statues of her to ease his feelings of loneliness.

There was no denying it... he was pathetic, but still he loved her in every way he could conceive, and he did not want that part of him to change, even if another part of him was ashamed of it.

As she glanced back at him, he noticed how flattered she looked, and he was about to breathe a sigh of relief until he saw how she headed to the rocks of the waterfall, her fingers now tracing over all the images he had carved out over the years. Part of him wanted to die right then and there, hoping it wasn't painfully obvious to her how much he had enjoyed their time together, but her words surprised him because of their gentleness.

"Your art is truly beautiful," she remarked, looking at a carving of Tamatoa tossing him in the air while she stood trapped in a cage of bones. "I'd love to see more of it!"

It wasn't a question, nor did she wait for him as she climbed up the rocks, looking at every little carving he had ever made, her fingers tracing over each and every last one while he followed her meekly. After looking at dozens of his drawings, she was beginning to realize that it was always about their adventure - about the things they had gone through together, and she grew very quiet, her heart aching for him.

When she looked over her shoulder and saw how he followed her, his shoulders slightly bent, as though he was trying to shrink himself into someone smaller right where he stood, she realized that this was not the sort of attention that he was waiting for. His art was something personal - and even if it could be found all over the island, it did not mean that he had ever meant for her to see it.

"I bet there is so much more great stuff to discover on this island," she continued, trying to change the subject. She wanted to put some of the power back into his own hands. "Is there anything you'd like to show me?"

At this, he perked up a little, and a small smile came to his face.

"Sure is!" he replied, his voice regaining some of its usual confidence as he looked at the waterfall, eager to show her his home. As he beckoned her to come closer, she did straight away, though she did not see it coming when he lifted her onto his shoulder, and she almost lost her balance for a second, until he wrapped one arm tightly around her legs to keep her in place.

"Hang on, princess!" he said eagerly, and she was about to protest that she still wasn't a princess when he jumped up a few more rocks to the side of the waterfall, then jumped through the waterfall itself.

She shrieked as she got very wet, expecting to hit some rock behind the water, and was surprised when they emerged on the other side, in a small but cozy cave. The heat didn't make it unpleasant to be all wet, but she still undid the tie around her hair as she tried to squeeze the water out.

He shook his head wildly, splashing her a bit as he did so, and she chuckled in good humor before she looked around. There was a fire pit, though the fire was out, as well as a good supply of wood on the far side of the cave, where it was a bit dryer. There was also a small amount of fruits not too far from where she stood, and she licked her lips as she remembered how hungry she was.

Maui noticed, and eagerly said: “Let me make you a Maui shake!”

“A Maui what?” she wondered, frowning as she watched him gather a bunch of fruits as well as a small knife.

“A Maui shake!” he repeated happily, cutting the top off of a coconut before he began slicing up other fruits, adding them to the mix.

When he was finished, he put the top of the coconut back on, squeezed it tightly shut, and shook it so fiercely that Moana looked at him with wide eyes. When he was done, he took the top off again and offered it to her, and she grinned as she took it from his hands.

As she smelled the shake, she closed her eyes in approval, and she hummed a little as she drank from her shake.

Maui was biting his lip as he waited for her to pass her judgement onto him, and he grinned when she smiled warmly.

“This is amazing,” she said, sounding very impressed, and Maui could burst with pride. 

“Have as much as you want!” he offered generously. “I can always make you more. There’s an abundance of fruit on this island. It's not exactly a bad place for a demigod to be."

As he sat around the fire pit, even while it wasn't burning, she soon sat by his side, offering to share her shake, but he politely declined, watching her instead as she continued drinking from it.

With her wet hair loose around her, she looked more like the Moana he remembered, though he also realized that something in her gaze was still different. Sometimes, when she thought he wasn’t looking, there was sadness there, and it hurt him to realize that the sadness he had seen in her all those years before had somehow lingered.

"How's your mom and dad?" he asked, trying to show her he truly was interested, and this surprised Moana, causing her to smile.

"They're well, thanks for asking!"

Not knowing what else to ask about her parents, he instead asked: "And Hei Hei?"

Her expression fell a little, and she shook her head. "Oh, he died about seven years ago..." Realizing how sad that made Maui, she added in a more cheerful voice: "But! To everyone's surprise, Hei Hei had some offspring. And now we have a bunch of really stupid chickens and roosters on our island... A few generations of them, in fact." She frowned, looking a little desperate as she added: "It's actually kind of pathetic. We've had to slaughter a few of the roosters cause they kept on crowing us awake at random intervals in the middle of the night. And the chickens have a tendency to roam too far, in places where they have no business to be."

Amused, he let out a loud laugh at that, and this in turn made Moana smile.

"That alone is reason enough to visit New Motunui," he joked, and Moana was relieved that he said that. She had honestly expected him to get cold feet, but so far, so good. He was still willing to join her, or so it seemed.

When she was done with her shake, he asked: "Would you like to go swimming?"

"Where?" she wondered curiously, and that question confused him for a moment.

"Just... Down the waterfall? For fun?" he suggested, and though she wasn't used to swimming for fun, not this past decade at least, she nodded eagerly and got up at the same time he did.

"You're wearing that for swimming?" he asked just to be sure, pointing at her blue dress.

Realizing that it was better not to get it too wet in order to keep the dyes vibrant, she undid the wrap and carefully dropped it on the floor, her back turned to him, but otherwise not particularly self-conscious as she stood before him in a short straw skirt and a bind around her chest.

He made a point not to look at her in that moment, and just asked: "Ready then?"

As she turned around and nodded, he chuckled, and suddenly he took her by her waste, feeling her protest for a moment until he threw her through the waterfall, hearing her scream before she splashed into the water below, and he laughed heartily before he joined her, jumping through the waterfall with a loud "CHEE HOO!!!"

Moana had just risen to the surface again and was gasping for breath when he landed, causing a small tidal wave to wash over her, leaving her with a mildly annoyed look.

That annoyance disappeared in a second though when she saw how cheerful Maui was when he came back up again, his smile so wide and childlike that she chuckled the moment she saw it.

"So this is what you do all day?" she wondered.

"Well, it's not as much fun without you," he said smoothly, offering her a wide grin, and as he noticed her blush, he felt rather good about himself.

He was better at flirting than he had thought himself to be - yet at the same time he hoped he wasn't making her uncomfortable in any way. That was the last thing he wanted.

"In fact..." His tone grew more serious again. "... It's been rough without you."

He saw how she shot him a compassionate gaze, and he smiled gently.

"I've missed you, Moana."

He could say it a hundred times over, but it would not make it any less true. Even admitting the feelings he had experienced for so long caused his heart to ache in that very moment.

"I've missed you too," she replied, some tears coming to her eyes, but she quickly tried to wipe them away. "Let's not get all sappy though," she forbade them both, and he chuckled at that. "I don't want to spend the rest of the day crying."

Smiling, he lifted a finger as he pointed at her, saying: "You got something in your eye though..."

She thought she was no longer crying and looked at him in confusion, only to have him splash her in the face the next moment.

She turned her head away as she tried to splash him in return, enjoying his loud laughter and the eagerness with which he tried to win this little battle.

Obviously, he had no trouble winning as he splashed his massive hands and arms around, and she hardly managed to get him wet at all - or so it felt.

As he kept up his splashing, she could hardly see him through the massive amounts of water that washed in her direction, and she suddenly dove under the water, her eyes wide open as she looked around, making sure to go way beneath him before she slowly dove back up again behind his back, noticing how he had stopped his splashing, probably wondering where she had went, and she could hear him calling her name, apparently thinking she had disappeared. When she swam up and breached the surface of the water behind him, she wrapped her arms around his neck, and upon realizing it would be impossible to pull him down with her, she just hung there for a moment, realizing that she should have thought this through.

"Boo?" she said softly, and he laughed heartily, reaching behind his back with his two hands and lifting her by her shoulders, pulling her over his head to land in front of him, then turning her around so she could look at him.

"You're too cute to be a ghost, Moana," he said playfully, holding her in his arms, and as he looked into her eyes, he noticed that she looked a little startled.

Then again, he was holding her in his arms, and as she had one hand on his shoulder and the other on his arm, not sure whether to get out of his arms or relax into them, she seemed to be breathless.

Her look of awe completely baffled him. Sure, he had always known what it was like to be gawked at, he was of an impressive size, and once his reputation had spread and he had traveled across so many islands, he had even had teenage girls - and also guys - faint before him when they had first seen him. He was used to being idolized and admired, but her look... it was something else entirely. It wasn't her first time looking at him. It also wasn't like she had never realized before he was a demigod. But it was the first time she seemed to realize he was a man - and for the first time ever, Maui was starting to realize that he was one too.

As she blushed and shyly averted her eyes from his, he began to realize just how much had changed between them. She never would have reacted in such a way all those years ago. Her fierceness and compassion had made her the perfect match for their battles of wits. But there was no battle now, just her shyness and... he frowned a little as he noticed that sad gaze in her eyes again, even as she cast them down... Was it guilt?

"Is something wrong?" he asked softly, and she managed to instantly relax him by smiling at him and shaking her head.

"No, nothing's wrong," she assured him. "Though you're making it very hard for me to do some actual swimming if you keep holding onto me like this..."

He laughed, gently letting go of her as they both paddled in the water, looking at one another.

"Wanna climb up the waterfall?" he suggested. "It's a lot of fun!"

She nodded before she followed him eagerly through the water, climbing up to the top of the rocks and then jumping down, following his lead at least half a dozen times.

It seemed impossible to tire him and he grinned as he climbed up the waterfall as fast as he could while Moana looked on from below. She was getting a bit tired and had decided to sit this one out - or to experience the "Amazing Maui Splash" as he had so happily put it. Another "CHEE HOO!" signaled his fall, and as he splashed in the water besides her, Moana laughed, looking around her for the spot where he would resurface.

He surprised her, however, when he wrapped his arms around her knees and lifted her up, his head at the level of her stomach, and as he lifted her into the air above the water, he was about to look up at her face when he suddenly noticed something else.

On her stomach, to the left side of her belly button, there was a scar. And it wasn’t a tiny one, it was as big as the palm of her hand, star-shaped and red, with some whiter skin around it – skin that no longer tanned like the rest of her.

He thought back to their time together, but he had never seen this scar – and he doubted she had had it then. As a look of worry etched across his face, she grew quiet, gulping as she looked down at him, realizing what he was looking at.

When he looked up at her, it was there again – that look of sadness and guilt that he had already spotted a few times.

“Moana…” he said softly. “What happened?”

She averted her eyes from his as she replied: “Kakamora.”

Maui felt a quiet rage boil within him as he realized that this wound had been caused by one of their harpoons, and he moved out of the water, still holding her in his arms as he got out, setting her down as gently as he could on the river bank. Compared to before, she seemed very self-conscious as she stood before him now, her hands folded together rather awkwardly, covering her scar, before she sat down on the grass. He joined her by her side, sitting close enough to feel the warmth of her body – but not close enough to touch. She pulled up her legs and wrapped her arms around them, resting her head on her knees.

“I will avenge you,” he promised her. “I will make them pay for the hurt they caused you. I can take them.”

She thought it was a sweet gesture of him, but completely unnecessary.

“The ocean already avenged me…” she told him softly. “The ocean swallowed their ships before they could do worse..."

He didn't know whether to be happy that the Kakamora had not survived, or angry that it hadn't been him who had made them pay.

"I was alone when it happened. It was the beginning of summer... I had just left New Motunui a few days earlier, to look for you… It was misty, but I didn’t realize what I was sailing into. Before I knew it, I was surrounded. I tried to out-sail them, but there were too many of them. I was doing alright, until one of their harpoons hit me… It wasn't one with a poisoned tip - I felt every bit of pain I possibly could. In hindsight, I wished it would have numbed me, but even without the paralyzing poison, I couldn’t do anything – I thought I was going to die then and there…”

She was pale just from retelling her story, and Maui gulped as he listened.

“The ocean defended me and sunk their ships, then carried me on fast waves back to my island. I was unconscious by the time I arrived and didn’t wake for several weeks. They thought I was dead when they found me washed up on the shore on my canoe…”

It was the most horrible story Maui had ever heard, and all he wanted to do was hold her, but her body language told him that she wasn’t done yet, that she needed to say more, and so he let her be.

“I was very weak, and it lasted almost a year before I was able to walk around like I had before. In the beginning, everything just hurt. I was lucky that their harpoon didn’t hit any of my vital organs. I would not have survived that.”

With tears in his eyes, Maui gently said: “You should have told me, I wouldn’t have tossed you so roughly in the water before. I could have hurt you.”

She smiled compassionately at him, and she put her hand on his as she continued: “I’m alright now. That was six years ago. I’m so happy that I’ve found you now – but part of me is sad too… If that had not happened, I might have found you a year sooner. I had to stop my search for an entire year, and I’ve been angry at myself ever since. I shouldn’t have headed into that mist, but I thought it would lead me to you…”

“You went through an entire ocean of bad – just for me,” he continued, trying not to cry, though he could not stop the tears that came to his eyes. “You almost died – trying to get to me – and… I wouldn’t have forgiven myself if anything had happened to you.” The tears streamed down his face now, and he made no effort to hide them from her. “I should have come to you instead. I was an idiot just sitting here, thinking of you, trying to keep myself from going to you because I was certain it was the wrong thing to do… But now I realize that staying here was the worst idea of all. I should have protected you – but instead I failed you.”

She sat up on her knees as she put her arms around his neck and hugged him, and he inhaled the scent of her hair as he pulled her closer to him, his arms tightly wrapped around her.

“Forgive me… I was selfish.”

She stroked his hair gently as she shook her head.

“No, Maui, you weren’t. You were just trying to protect yourself from pain. And I can’t even blame you. All I want now, is for you to be happy. And I think New Motunui can bring you happiness – not just for now – but for generations to come. I want you to be a part of it – to have a home.”

Taking a deep breath, he pulled back from her again, looking her in the eye as his look became more determined and he decided: “Then let’s go.”

Seeing how she didn’t understand completely, he continued bravely: “To New Motunui. As soon as we pack up some supplies and I get my hook, we leave. What do you say?”

She had not seen this coming – and she smiled and nodded emotionally, throwing her arms around him again as she held him tight.

He gratefully closed his eyes as she hugged him again.

He would always blame himself for not going to her sooner – but at least from now on, he knew better than to leave her alone. He would protect her – he would watch over her – for as long as he possibly could, beginning that very moment. 


	5. Harness the Breeze

The sun was setting by the time they left the island on Moana's canoe. Up close, he recognized it as the very same canoe on which they had had their adventure, and it was strange how it felt so much more like home than the island he had spent the last ten years on.

He had loved this island though - it had been a small paradise on earth - but he had no doubt that New Motunui would have just as much to offer - and it actually offered something that he had missed all those years: Moana.

She was steering them away from the island, nothing but the ocean ahead as the wind blew through her hair, and as they passed the reef and the course was set, she looked at him with a grin.

"There's someone else who missed you... Oh  _ocean_?"

Maui gulped as she sang that last word, realizing that he had not just avoided Moana, he had avoided the ocean as well. All those years ago, he had flown to his island - not sailed - and he hadn't once set a foot in the ocean since his arrival. There had been no need to because the island had provided him with everything he needed. The ocean had been just as clueless about his whereabouts as Moana had been, and though he hated to admit it, a part of him had wanted it that way, even if he now cursed that part of himself.

The familiar wave peeked up from the surface of the water, and as Maui grinned in an apologetic way, he found a steady stream of water spraying over him the next moment, messing with his hair and forcing him to close his eyes.

When it stopped, he opened his eyes again and wiped his face dry with his hand, muttering: “I probably deserved that…”

But apparently the ocean didn’t think that was enough punishment, for the next moment it had grabbed Maui’s hook from where it had laid on the boat, and it was using it to hit Maui on the head, over and over again.

“Ocean, no!” Moana said with a gasp, not having expected this fierce reaction from the ocean at all.

“Cut it out!” Maui cried, covering his head with his hands, but this only caused the ocean to punch Maui in the gut the next time, and he doubled over from the strength of the hit, not feeling like he ever wanted to anger the ocean again.

“I said I was sorry!” he moaned, clearly in some pain now, and as Moana rushed to his side to help him up again, the ocean dropped the hook on the boat again, frantically moving towards Moana, trying to indicate the area around her stomach, and Maui understood.

It was like the ocean blamed Maui for the injury Moana had sustained all those years ago, and he did not disagree.

“I know,” he said in a softer tone, trying to show the ocean he understood. “I wasn’t there for Moana. It was my fault she got injured so badly. She could have died, and I was off… hiding… from the both of you… And you saved her, and I let her down. There is no need to remind me.”

The regret was so clear in his voice that the ocean calmed again, backing down and retreating into the rest of the water, and Maui sighed sadly.

“Are you okay?” Moana asked as she carefully put her hand to the side of his head, trying to see if he had hurt his head in any way, and he chuckled.

“My ego is a little bruised, but I’ll live.”

He tried to smile it off, but he too felt a great deal of regret that he couldn’t easily get rid of. Trying to distract them both, he asked: “Are we on the right course?”

Moana nodded. “Will take a while to get back home. With the best possible wind, a week. If the wind doesn’t play along, a few weeks perhaps.” She looked out at the ocean again and lowered her hand besides the boat, into the water. “But if someone decides to help along,” she sang teasingly, and the ocean popped up again, looking from Moana to Maui and back again, and Moana softly asked: “Will you help us get home to New Motunui a little faster?”

At first the ocean seemed to hesitate, but then Maui felt how the canoe was speeding up as it crossed the waves, and he grinned.

“You know, Moana,” he started boasting. “I can control the breeze. With the help of the ocean and me, you’ll be back home in no time!”

She felt how the wind picked up, and not understanding exactly how he did it, she looked at the tattoo on his upper arm, the one that showed coconut trees moving in the wind, and a boat with a full sail.

“How do you…  _harness_ the breeze?” she wondered, sitting down on her knees as she curiously tilted her head.

“I just think about it, and it happens,” he explained simply, and he saw how this only confused Moana more.

“But then… How did you ever learn how to do that? What kind of magic is that?”

He was excited that she would ask him such a question, for she certainly had never asked him much about his past before. He had told her about his feats, but he had never shared any details with her, because she had never asked. There hadn’t been time for that back then, but now there was.

If it was to be a long journey home, he would gladly share more of his tales with her, and he grinned before he began to talk.

“When I was a child, I lived with my mother.” As he noticed Moana’s confused gaze, he quickly added: “The Goddess who took me in, not my human mother who tossed me in the ocean... Her name was Hina. We lived in a cave on a beautiful island and she had made me a kite – and I flew it every day. But I wanted a bigger thrill, and so I took it upon myself to make the largest kite you can imagine – and I was eager to try it out. But the winds were simply too soft and it would not be lifted. Instead of just throwing my kite away or going back to my smaller one, I asked the gods for help, and they were eager to please me because they were eager to please Hina. The first day, they did not mind. The second day, they hoped I would soon grow tired of my kite, but I kept on asking for their aid, day in, day out, for nearly a thousand days. After so many times, they became sick of my asking them for help, that they gave me a bit of their powers.”

Moana looked anxious and excited to hear more, and this genuinely pleased Maui.

“I don’t have all the powers one could have over the winds – it is a pretty small power, actually. I can’t stop a storm, but I can harness a small breeze – large enough for a kite, or for a sail. So I can help us travel a little bit faster, or make the wind blow through my hair…” He demonstrated, and Moana chuckled as she saw how elegantly his hair moved in the wind for a small moment. “Or through yours!”

She had half-expected him to mess up her hair, but for once, the opposite was true. A gentle breeze blew through her hair and she smiled with her eyes closed, enjoying the sensation.

When he stopped, she looked at him and smiled. “That’s a wonderful story! I know a few of your stories, but I didn’t know this one. I knew that they called you a demigod of the wind and sea – but I didn’t know in which way you could control it. Can you also control the sea?”

He shook his head. “No, that’s a power that the Ocean has. But they call me that because I always used to travel the seas – and I knew better than anyone how to survive on it.”

“I bet you still do,” Moana said full of awe.

He kept quiet for a moment as he looked at her, a small smile on her face. She was so in awe of him – but he was in awe of her as well.

“I believe I have an equal now,” he said warmly, and that warmth within him only spread when he saw how pleased she was to hear those words.

His story of before had made her wonder something, and she suddenly asked: “Did you use to have a home? With your mother Hina? Because in all the tales I’ve heard about you, I always thought you were a traveler without a home.”

“I only had a home in my childhood – which probably lasted a whole lot longer than a normal childhood. Being a demigod, time moves differently. I may have been a child for over a hundred years – but it was a completely different age than this one.  We were simpler. There were no real huts – no pretty houses or beautiful dresses like yours. We lived in caves. We ate fruits and roots and raw fish, for I had not yet stolen fire at that time. My mother kept watch over the entrance to the underground – but we’d see her every night. I had bigger brothers – they were full gods, unlike me. When they came of age and left the cave, I was alone with my mother, until she... left too."

Something about the way he said those last words didn't feel right. It sounded too casual - and he could feel Moana's eyes burning as she looked at him.

Knowing what she wanted to ask, he continued: "She died. Her mortal form, at least. And she could not return to me. She still keeps watch of the entrance to the underworld. I saw her when I went to steal the fire from her mother. It was good to see her then, but I'm sure I'll see her again one day."

“You don’t go and visit her?”

“At the entrance of the underworld?” He laughed. “No, no, that wouldn’t be wise. That’s like having a picnic in Lalotai – you simply don’t go there unless you really need to be there. And after stealing grandma’s fire, I _really_ don’t wanna go back there. Even if I would love to see my mom, I’m sure she understands.”

"I bet she misses you too," she said softly, and he was surprised by how comforting her words could be. 

Trying to conclude his tale for now, he said: "I started journeying when she died. Battled monsters, pulled islands from the sky, stole fire... I roamed the islands, wanting to help where I could."

"Did you never find a second home?" Moana wondered. "In all those years, people must have been grateful for all your magnificent deeds… Didn't they offer you to stay?"

Maui shrugged. "Everyone always offered me to stay as long as I wanted to... But I wasn't waiting for that sort of thing. Nor do I think people really wanted me to stick around...  Not for too long. I was a trickster, after all, and though people were in awe of my powers, they were also suspicious of me. I stayed around sometimes, for a few weeks or months at most, but I always left, and when I had a say in it, I lived apart from the humans."

He looked up at Moana to see she was a little worried - and with good reason. Even he didn't know if he could live on her island for longer than a few weeks. He never had before, not with other humans. But for the first time in forever, he wanted to stay with someone - with her. And he smiled in a reassuring way as he said: "But I want to try. The world has changed so much... There are no monsters left for me to fight, no more things for me to discover... Mankind has grown - perhaps even outgrown me. The other gods and demigods are gone as well now, where I can't follow, I guess. All that's left are old fossils like me and Tamatoa. It's not easy for me to think about that sort of thing, but I need to adapt. I can't keep on living in the past."

Moana stood up and walked over to him, sitting down right in front of him as she gave him a big hug. 

"I'm so proud of you," she said softly as she held him tightly, and he wrapped his arms around her as well, feeling more alive than he had in a thousand years. The glow that she spread around them both warmed his soul, and he smiled happily as he closed his eyes. As he felt her hand in his hair, he almost melted into her completely, affectionately moving his head into her gentle touch. 

"Don't you worry, Maui... I'll help you adapt. But even I can't guarantee that it won't be a bit weird at first."

Maui chuckled. "Oh, I'm counting on that." As he pulled back to look at her, he said: "But I won't run off anymore - not without telling you at least."

She grinned. "Not without taking me along too, I hope! You're not the only one who requires a change of scenery every now and then!"

He smiled widely. "Deal. From now on, where I go, you go too."

Amazed that she'd tear up at those words, he didn't see it coming when she crashed into him, hugging him even tighter than before. He realized that she was crying tears of joy, and he softly assured her: "No worries. I got your back, chosen one."


	6. Arrival

When Moana woke the following morning, she was disoriented.

Her canoe was empty, and she could not believe she had fallen asleep - though she realized soon that it hadn't been in error. Maui had been there, and he had encouraged her to get some rest, and she had seldom slept so well. His fingers had gently run through her hair, over and over again, until all worries and thoughts had left her mind and she had fallen into a blissful slumber, her head resting against his leg, his scent a familiar comfort in an otherwise lonely night.

But he was gone now, and she felt worried as she sat up and looked around.

There was still a strong wind in her sail, and the ocean still cleared the waves before they could slow down her canoe, but there was no sight of Maui or his fish hook, and for a moment her heart sank.

After all they had discussed the evening before, had he still gotten cold feet? Even after he had told her he wouldn't run off again? 

He wasn't anywhere to be seen though, and Moana hated the sensation of panic and despair that ran through her. After a decade of searching and one wonderful day together, did she have to start her search all over again?

"Maui?" she called out as loudly as she could, and she hated how desperate her voice sounded.

She was positively startled though when she heard a splash at the front of her canoe and saw a familiar sight.

Maui's shark-head looked at her with a mildly surprised expression, and he immediately said: "I'm here!" before he changed into his human form again and climbed on the boat. 

Though he was soaking wet, that didn't stop Moana from hugging him, and he found it suspicious how relieved she seemed to be.

"You didn't think I would leave you, did you?" he asked with narrowed eyes, and she had a guilty expression on her face. 

"I was worried for a moment..." she admitted, trying to say it as lightly as she could, but she could not hide the nerves within.

He looked at her for a few moments as he considered how deeply her trust in him must have been torn because he had hidden himself the past decade. He did not blame her for her distrust. In fact, it was justified. He  _had_ considered leaving her that night – a dozen times. But each time he had looked at her, his heart had melted all over again, and he had sworn to protect her instead. Her safety was more important than the stability of his heart. So what if he experienced some of the worst emotions of his lifetime in her presence? He also experienced the best. It seemed like a fair trade.

But it still wasn’t pleasant to know he had lost her trust along the way. After all they had been through… He wished he knew how to mend it again. 

As he bound his wet hair together in a top-knot and headed to the front of the canoe, he explained: "I have been pulling the ship all night." He pulled a rope out of the water and left it to dry on the deck. "We made incredible speed. I'm not sure how far we are from New Motunui, but with any luck we'll make it there in a day or two."

Though Moana was pleased with that news, she smiled slyly as she said: "Shame... I quite enjoy having you all to myself."

Not used to this sort of attention, Maui blushed, once more nearly shrinking where he stood as he tried to make himself as small as possible, fumbling a little with his fish hook in his hands. 

She didn't know whether to enjoy that reaction or to be terrified by the fact that she was making him this uncomfortable, and she tried to distract him by casually asking: "Are you hungry?"

As he nodded and approached her, they shared some fruits from the hold, enjoying the warmth of the sun and the refreshing breeze as their canoe traveled across the ocean at a break-neck speed. By noon, Moana spotted a familiar island. 

"We're closer than I thought" she said in awe. "This is just a day's travel from home! Incredible!" She adjusted their position a little bit, and added happily: "At this speed, we should arrive around nightfall."

"Let's see if I can speed that up!" Maui said, convinced that this was a challenge, and with a loud "Chee-hoo!" he swung his fish hook as he jumped up and off the canoe, changing into a shark again.

Moana couldn't get enough of his transformations and laughed as he splashed in the water in front of the boat, then resurfaced behind it, swimming as fast as he could to keep up with it. 

"Moana!" he called out. "Throw the rope in front of the boat!"

As he disappeared beneath the surface of the water again, Moana rushed to the front of her canoe, and tossed out the rope as he had asked her.   
She saw how he pulled the rope between his teeth and swam as fast as he could, and she noticed that the speed did increase – and even if it was just a small increase, they would certainly take hours of their journey this way. 

She continued to watch him for a long while as he swam right underneath the surface of the water, eventually watching as the sun lowered and another familiar island came into sight. 

"Maui!" she called out, and as he resurfaced, he looked up for a brief moment before he dove underneath the water again, emerging at the back of the canoe this time, where he transformed into his human self before he climbed aboard.

"I see it, princess," he said as he stepped up beside her and looked out over the island.

It was bigger than her old island - not just in width, but in height as well - and he remembered the same island from days of old, when there had been no people there, and no coconut trees or birds either, and it had been home to a few gigantic monsters - all of which he had slain, of course - and he could not wait to tell her about that.

As they crossed the reef, the ocean stopped clearing the path before them, and they gladly relied on their own wayfinding skills to make it to the beach.

When Maui jumped into the water to pull the canoe to the shore, Moana reeled in the sail, and they both looked up when they heard voices in the distance.

"It's Moana's ship!" a voice called out, and then another further away, and another, until they could no longer understand the distant shouting, and they heard men blow on seashells to alert the entire village of her arrival. More and more people emerged from the grove between the ocean and the village, some carrying torches as the night was now close to falling, and while Moana was eager to see so many familiar faces, Maui was weary and slightly terrified. 

Though some men had ran closer, they had slowed down the moment they had spotted the imposing figure of Maui next to their future chief.

"Moana!"

She recognized her mother's grateful voice immediately, and took a few steps closer to see how her mother ran through the sand as though she was eighteen years old again, overjoyed that her daughter had returned home, safe and sound.

When Sina spotted Maui, however, she slowed down, impressed by the man's size and fascinated by the amount of tattoos - not to mention that the archaic leaf skirt was a bit odd. Looking at his face, she immediately recognized the mild panic in the god's eyes. She doubted the others noticed, but as a mother, she had a knack for seeing these kinds of things. 

As Chief Tui was among one of the last villagers to arrive, he too noticed Maui, and it seemed like everyone had kept their distance a bit, both out of respect and out of fear. First contact with a demigod seemed like a job for the chief, not for them, though they were all very curious about Maui.

While Tui walked closer, he had his eyes on the tall demigod. He had always assumed that the images that represented him had been exaggerations when it came to his size - and Moana had not prepared them for this either. 

Stopping in front of Maui, he knelt down respectfully, and all other villagers proceeded to follow his example, lowering their gazes.

Chief Tui spoke with the greatest reverence, and Maui could only look on in slight horror as he continued: "Maui, shapeshifter, demigod of the wind and sea, hero to all... you honor us with your presence. For the past decade, we have been so grateful for your aid in returning the heart of Te Fiti. But now more than ever, thank you for safely delivering our daughter Moana to us."

Unsure what to do, he glanced at Moana, who gave him an encouraging smile, but even she seemed to realize that this was more awkward than either of them could have imagined. 

Looking at the hundreds of people around him as they all sat on their knees, their heads bent so he could not look a single one of them in the eye, he frowned, before he suddenly blurted out: "Actually... I did not deliver Moana anywhere. She delivered  _me_  here!"

As Chief Tui looked up, so did some of the others, their gazes full of curiosity and surprise at the sound of the demigod’s casual tone. 

"I eh... I heard there eh... there was a hut for me?" he added quickly, wanting to enter said hut as soon as possible, and to hide from all these people so that this awkwardness could stop. He didn’t understand why they were still kneeling.

People seemed unsure what to do, and Moana kept her voice down as she took a step closer to Maui before she whispered: "If you tell them to stand up, they will."

"Stand up!" he said quickly, and as he saw that some people still hesitated, he added: "All of you!"

Slowly but surely the people got up again, and with all those eyes lingering on him, he felt very self-conscious, more aware of his inhuman size than ever before, hoping they did not find him too ugly or terrifying, and he almost jumped when he realized someone had walked up to the side of him. 

It was Moana's mother, and as she took off her flower necklace, she raised it to put it around Maui's neck.

Recognizing this custom from the days of old, he bent forward respectfully, the bright color of the red flowers not aiding in hiding his blush, and as he looked at the woman before him, he suddenly felt very small. She was a mother alright – and something about her reminded him of Hina – and he looked at her with wide eyes, wondering why he felt such an instant affection for her.

"It has been centuries since our tribe has had the pleasure of welcoming a visitor with a lei," Sina told him softly. "Next time, I hope we won't just be welcoming you as a visitor, but as one of us, returning home."

Those words both moved and terrified Maui, and he gulped as Sina moved to her daughter to give her a big hug. 

"You found him," she whispered, and Maui felt horrible as he noticed the tears of joy that streamed down Moana's face. 

For over ten years she had looked for him... Had nearly died in her quest to find him... And what had he done for her?

_Nothing._

He had no idea how to ever make it up to her, but he knew he had to try, in some way. Whatever she wanted, he would get it for her. Next time they were alone, he would ask her if there was anything she wanted. He would travel to the edge of the world if that was what it took to make her happy. 

Chief Tui woke him from his reverie, and said: "Though your arrival is unexpected tonight, we would still like to honor you with a feast. Our dancers have been practicing, and we could prepare a wonderful dinner."

Maui gulped, unsure what to do. He already felt overwhelmed as it was, and Moana was by his side in an instant, once more offering her much-needed assistance without him needing to ask for it. 

"Father, I propose we have the feast tomorrow evening. Maui has not slept in a few days, and it would be a shame if he would be too tired to enjoy the feast to its fullest. Besides, I am certain the celebration would only benefit from a bit more time to prepare on our behalf."

Maui wanted to hug her in gratitude, but kept his hands to himself as he hoped Tui would not disagree with her. 

Tui laughed pleasantly, nodding in agreement. "Wise words, my daughter." He turned to Maui again. "If this pleases you?"

"It pleases me!" he quickly assured the chief, his voice a little higher than it usually was, hoping that they would now show him to his hut, and once more Moana knew exactly what he wanted. 

She took his hand with both of hers and pulled him along, through the crowd, as she smiled and said: "The entire village has worked on your hut for many, many years. It is by far the finest hut we've ever made, and we can't wait for you to see!"

The entire village was listening. The entire village was watching, and he thought he had to look like an idiot, following her so meekly. Here he was: the great demigod Maui, reduced to a love-struck fool as the pretty girl in the blue dress - the only blue dress in the entire village, or so it seemed - led him by the hand. 

To make it even worse, the entire village followed them as Moana led the way through the village, pointing out where their coconut trees were, where the path began that led to the fishing boats, where she lived with her parents, where they weaved their baskets and held their feasts, and Maui hoped he wouldn't need to live in-between all of that, but to his great relief, Moana led him to the edge of the village.

As a gigantic house came into sight, Maui's mouth dropped a little. It seemed to be three times as big as the house where Moana lived with her parents, and above its door hung a large tapestry with a drawing of his fishhook, and he was honored, to say the least, not noticing how Moana kept on checking his expression to see if he was pleased. 

"I made that," Moana said proudly, and he looked at her with an incredulous expression. "Took me two rain seasons," she added with a proud smile. "Do you like it?"

"It's... perfect!" he replied quietly, but completely sincere, and as he walked closer to the door, he needed to go up a few stairs, and when he felt Moana's hand slip from his, he stopped in mild confusion, noticing that she had stopped in front of those steps, just as the rest of the villagers had come to a halt too.

As he looked at her, she smiled encouragingly, and his heart broke a little as he realized she would not follow him or join him for what was to come. As he looked at the villagers, he could hear crickets chirp in the distance. All these people were holding their breaths, and as he firmly took his fish hook in both his hands, he tried to figure out what to say. 

"Thank you, people of New Motunui!" 

As his voice boomed over the crowd, he realized that he had done this plenty of times before, and that there was no reason to be shy. He had never been shy before. But then again, Moana had never been in the crowd then. And he also hadn’t nearly been responsible for the destruction of the world…

As the silence endured for a second longer than was normal, Moana came to his rescue, stepping up the steps so she could address him too.

"And thank you, Maui, for giving New Motunui a chance."

She was the last person on earth who needed to thank him for anything, and he hoped that she realized this as he smiled at her and softly replied: "You're welcome..."

As those words, and perhaps the low tone in which he had said it, caused her to blush, he cleared his throat before he tried to distract everyone's attention, raising his fishhook as he shouted: "And tomorrow evening, we feast!"

As the crowd cheered, Moana stepped down the steps again, glad to see her people respond so warmly to him. Awkward as the entire introduction had been to all of them, she hoped it would be easier tomorrow.

Maui opened the door and stepped inside, and at this, the people dispersed again. The few that lingered, got shoo’d off by Sina.

“Off you go, party’s tomorrow eve, not now. Better get some decent sleep if you wish to enjoy the celebration tomorrow. There’s a big day ahead, now go!”

Moana didn’t leave though, she watched as the others left and thanked those that welcomed her home again. A few tried to ask her where she had found Maui, and how that had gone, but chief Tui was immediately by his daughter’s side, answering those questions for her.

“This is not the best time to ask. Sina is right, we all need rest. Tomorrow your questions will be answered, now go and sleep.”

Moana could not express how grateful she was to her parents, and when the last villagers had returned to their homes, Moana hugged her father tightly, only to be joined in that hug by her mother.

“It is so good to finally have you home again,” Sina whispered.

“We’ve missed you so much,” Tui added. “And you did it! You got Maui to join you here!”

At those words, she lightly pulled back from her parents’ arms though, worry on her face as she admitted: “I must go and see how he’s doing. I’m afraid he’ll consider running if I don’t.”

“Running?” Tui didn’t understand. “After we welcomed him so warmly?”

Sina chuckled. “The poor guy couldn’t get to his hut fast enough… I think you didn’t see how anxious he was because you were too focused on his muscles. Moana’s right: he looked a little too eager to leave.” Turning to her daughter, she continued: “Go to him.”

Moana smiled happily as she wanted to run up the stairs to his door, but she felt her father’s hands around her wrist, gently stopping her before she could take one step. As she looked back, her father had a slightly troubled expression on his face, and he said: “But come back to us. Don’t stay.”

Her eyes widened as she realized that her father thought she would spend the night – in more than an amiable way – and she seemed shocked at that accusation.

“Of course!” A blush had spread over her cheeks though, but Tui seemed pleased with her reply, and took Sina’s hand before they headed back home.

Moana was a little alarmed by what her father had thought for a moment, and tried to put it out of her mind before she headed up the stairs, only knocking softly before she opened the door and entered. She hoped Maui hadn’t run off just yet.


	7. Chicken Killer

As he closed the door behind him and turned around to look at his new home, he couldn't see a thing. The place was dark - and as his eyes slowly got used to said darkness, he only got a slightly better view of how high up the ceiling really was, and he gulped as he realized he could fit half the village in his home. 

It was too big - even for him.

He took off the lei that Sina had given him, feeling the soft flower petals between his fingers before he got distracted by the voices outside his door, and he peeked out of the small window at the front to see what was going on.

Some people were reluctant to leave, but Moana's mother and father were shooing them off, telling them to go home, and he felt a rush of gratitude for them in that moment. When the people had left, and only Moana and her parents were left, he saw how warmly they hugged each other and he felt his heart ache.

He was happy for Moana, he truly was, but the sight of her parents holding her so tightly also stirred some other emotions in him. The one emotion he wasn't proud of, but which he recognized immediately, was jealousy. He wasn't even sure if he was jealous because they were holding  _her_ , or simply because no one was holding  _him_. His birth family had never wanted him - and though Hina had cared for him, she hadn't been the hugging kind of goddess.

He felt sad and incomplete watching them, and terribly alone, and he stepped away from the window as he could no longer bear the thought of looking at them. Sighing sadly, he stood still for a few moments, wondering what on earth he was to do now in this dark hut, which felt more like a prison than like a home. 

Though he wouldn’t admit it to anyone: he was terrified of going out there again in the morning – of meeting up with the other villagers. Meeting them before had been a terrifying experience already, and he had felt horribly out of place. Surely they would think him ridiculous – so different from all of them – and such an idiot for letting their future chief look for him for years in a row. How could any of them have warm feelings towards him? If they didn’t hate him yet, they would at some point.

When he heard a soft knock and the door behind him opened, he turned around immediately, a rush of relief spreading through him when he saw it was Moana, and as she closed the door behind her, she kept her voice down as she said: "What are you doing in this darkness? Let me make some light for you."

She walked past him, and completely missed his sad look of gratitude as he smiled at her. While she knelt down in the middle of the room, Maui noticed that there was a small fire pit there, and Moana started hitting some rocks together, trying to start a fire for him.

As he patiently waited a few steps away from her, he suddenly froze when he felt something incredibly soft against his ankle, and his heart stopped for a moment as he tried to make sense of what it was. When something suddenly pecked his toe, he yelped in a panic and kicked it away in a reflex. The next thing they heard was a chicken as it cried out in terror, then hit the wall with a loud thud.

There was an awkward moment of complete silence as they both processed what had just happened.

Maui's heart was still racing in terror while he suddenly heard Moana cry out in laughter, leaving the fire pit for what it was as she headed to the wall, where the chicken was laying on the ground now, nothing but moonlight illuminating its lifeless figure.

Her laughter stopped for a moment as she said: "Well... that chicken's dead now."

With a horrified expression, he watched how Moana took it by the neck and triumphantly lifted it. 

"And so the great demigod Maui has slain his first chicken for the feast tomorrow!" she cheered playfully, still amused by what she had witnessed. "That was hilarious."

He remained completely still though, and Moana noticed how he hadn't said a single word yet. Deciding to focus on lighting the room for him, she quickly put the dead chicken down again and got a fire burning, and once it was lit, Maui knelt down by her side, staring a little sadly at the dead chicken.

“Don’t worry about it,” Moana said with a small smile. “Some of these chickens are true plagues. Though I can’t really say that’s a way I’d want to go.”

She chuckled again as she remembered the moment, shaking her head to herself. She was probably a horrible person for finding such a thing amusing, but it had been the funniest thing she had ever witnessed.

As she put a bit more wood on the fire, he let his eyes travel across the large room. 

He saw many woven baskets in one corner, as well as several fishing nets and other fishing materials in another. Another corner had a pillow and blanket, and he thought the house was rather bare, until he suddenly realized there were paintings on the wall.

He slowly got up and grabbed a torch that lay besides the fire pit, lighting it before he stepped closer to it, to his surprise recognizing a figure that was very much like Mini-Maui, sailing on a canoe that looked a great deal like Moana's. He soon realized that there were more drawings, painted on all the walls, and his mouth slightly dropped as he watched them all, recognizing all the impressive feats he had tattoos off, as well as drawings of his hook being destroyed by Te Ka, and others of his hook being restored by Te Fiti. There were drawings of him in hawk-form closer up to the ceiling, and in one particular spot he saw an image of himself as a half-shark, and he suddenly chuckled, amused by the look of frustration on the shark's head.

His heart was beating painfully loud in his throat as he suddenly turned back to Moana, seeing how she was smiling gently at him, a little shy at the same time.

He had thought himself crazy for decorating his island with images of Moana - and he had actually felt ashamed of showing her - but now that she showed him exactly the same, he realized that every moment he had spent thinking of her, she had spent thinking of him, and he smiled sadly to himself as he let his fingers trace one of the paintings. 

This entire house, which she had meant to be his, was decorated by her art - and he could only imagine how many hours she had spent here while he had been hiding out. How many rain seasons had she poured her heart into this place? 

As he noticed a torch holder against the wall, he placed his torch there, taking a few steps back as he admired the decorating from afar. He could not wait to see it in daylight, and returned to the fire pit, sitting down by Moana's side again, his hands in his lap as he remained very quiet, looking up at the wall in awe.

But the more he thought about it, the more he hated himself for not coming to her sooner. She could have spent her entire lifetime building him this house, and he would not have known if she had not come to look for him too. He lowered his head in shame, deciding that he wasn’t worthy of looking at her beautiful art.

She assumed that he hadn't noticed it himself, but he actually hadn't said a word since she had entered, and she was surprised by how he almost seemed to startle the moment she put her hand on his arm, not seeing how he had clenched his fists in frustration.

"Maui?" she asked softly. "Are you alright?"

She couldn't catch a glimpse of his face, for his head was bent forward and his long hair blocked her view. Without hesitation, she reached out and stroked his hair to the side, and to this he turned his head towards her, the sadness in his eyes breaking her heart. 

"Maui... What's wrong?"

As she waited for him to begin talking, she instead saw that his eyes welled up with tears again, and instead of telling her anything, he pulled her closer into a fierce hug, and she held him as tightly as she could while he clung to her.

She wished she truly understood him, but she honestly had no idea what was causing the tears this time. Was he afraid of this village life? Did he enjoy his new house so much that it made him emotional? Did he feel guilty again for not looking for her? Was he upset about killing that chicken by accident? It was probably a combination of all those things, and as an idea came to her, she stood up and held out her hands to help him up. 

"Come on, big guy," she said warmly. "There's something I want to show you."


	8. Opening Up

Though he didn't know what she wanted to do, he followed her lead, and after she took the torch from the wall again, she took his hand and headed outside through a back door. 

In the garden behind his house, he spotted a dozen banana trees and beautiful flower bushes, but Moana led him further than that, away from his new home and the rest of the village. As they encountered a small river in the jungle, Moana led him further upstream, until he could hear water clattering and a small waterfall came into sight.

"There's no cave behind this one," Moana said with a smile, securing her torch between a few rocks at the water's side. "Nor is it much of a challenge to climb... But it's fun. Come on, last one in there is a rotten egg!"

As she pulled off her dress and tossed it to the ground, then rushed towards the waterside, she noticed that he hadn't moved at all, and she turned around with a worried expression.

"Just jump," he eventually said, his voice a little bitter. "I'll be the rotten egg."

Wondering how on earth she was ever going to figure out what was wrong with him, she got an idea, and as she walked up to him, she put his hair behind his shoulder, looking for mini-Maui on his chest. A small shock went through her when she noticed he wasn't there at all, and mini-Moana was sitting on her boat by herself, a sad expression on her face. 

"Where's mini-Maui?" she asked in a worried tone, and though Maui hesitated, he suddenly lifted his arm, and Moana looked on in surprise at the sight of mini-Maui, hiding in Maui's armpit, his arms wrapped around his knees as he was shivering in fear. The poor little guy seemed terrified, and Moana tilted her head emphatically. 

"Hey little Maui," she said kindly. "Don't be afraid..."

As Maui suddenly grunted, she looked up in surprise. Maui looked annoyed, though more with himself than with her.

"You're talking to my armpit," he muttered in frustration. "If any of the villagers were to see this, they would declare me insane before they even got to know me."

Moana smiled. "Well, you _are_  a little insane, Maui..."

As he looked at her with a raised eyebrow, he realized that she was only joking, but still she continued : "No one else would pass up an opportunity to go swimming on a beautiful night like this one..."

Seeing how Mini-Maui was peeking at her from the side of Maui's chest now, she continued: "And you don't need to be afraid. If you're afraid, just go to mini-Moana on her canoe. She's not afraid of anything, just like me!"

Mini-Maui only needed a few moments to consider that, and then ran to mini Moana and hopped on her boat, where he received a big hug from his small friend. 

"See... That's not so hard," she smiled, and as she looked up into Maui's eyes, she saw that he had been listening as well, and she put her hand on his shoulder. "Goes for you too, big guy. I'm here for you - no matter how scary it gets. I'm not afraid of anything on this island, and you shouldn't be either. I know you don't believe me yet... But my people are going to love you, and we're going to have a lot of fun here. I promise!"

Maui hesitated, but as he looked at her, she realized he'd been listening - and he was considering that what she had said was the truth. 

Sighing to himself, he suddenly said: "I'm sorry for being such a chicken... I can hardly even explain why... I never had a problem with humans before... Yet meeting them earlier was one of the scariest things that ever happened in my entire life. I worry that tomorrow will be even worse."

"Then stop worrying about it," Moana said with a wide smile, taking both his hands as she led him to the water, and once again he felt like he was unable to resist her pull.

With a gentle smile on his face, he followed her further in, and she continued: "When you're constantly worrying about things you don't understand, you can't enjoy those things in life that are worth living for. So you're scared? That's fine. I won't judge you for it. But don't let that fear ruin your enjoyment of the water here, or of the moonlight above us..."

 _Or of the company_ , he thought to himself with a small smile.

As they reached the deeper part of the water, Moana bent through her knees for a little while, completely submerging herself before she came up for air again, her hair now completely wet as she looked at him, and he wondered if it was normal that his mouth felt so dry. 

He followed her example and went underwater for a small moment, and when he came up again he saw that she was smiling.

"Feels good, doesn't it?" she asked.

He could only nod in agreement.

"Tomorrow, I'll be with you every step of the way,” she promised him. “It's normal if it's a bit weird for everyone at first. They're not used to hanging out with demigods, just like you're not used to hanging out with them. But you'll be fine, I'm sure of it. Just sing them that song you sang for me the first time we met. They'll love that."

He chuckled for a brief moment as he remembered that. "You have no idea how long I worked on that song."

"About a thousand years?" she guessed, and he sighed in defeat. 

"Close to it."

"Well, I loved it," she said with a smile, and at those words, he felt a little swell of pride within. "And what about that dance you do? The one where you clap your chest and your legs and all that?"

Maui frowned. "The haka? You don't know that?"

As she shook her head, his mouth dropped a little.

"When did your men forget how to do the haka?” He could hardly grasp how such an ancient dance had been forgotten. “Do they even do any other dances?"

Moana nodded eagerly. "They do a ton of dances! But nothing quite as powerful as the one you did. You should show them tomorrow at the celebration. They'll be amazed."

"I bet!" he suddenly said, his confidence returning. He was starting to look forward to it. Performing was one of the things he was good at.

Small talk, on the other hand, was a bit of a disaster to him, as was imparting actual wisdom, or just talking and listening in general. But when it came to telling tall tales or dancing, he knew he could put on a show. 

"I don't even get why I'm so scared," he muttered, realizing now that if anyone could help him with his insecurities, it was Moana. "I used to be great with fans... But now... I feel like I just need to apologize to everyone."

Moana didn't quite follow. "What do you mean?"

"I used to be supercool. Like... I was the best in everything. The guy who raised the islands, killed monsters and gave you a place to live - the guy who stole fire - and now... now you don't even need me for lighting one. And there are no monsters to kill anymore... I just accidentally kill chickens instead." He sighed in defeat. "Everyone's gotten really clever. And everyone is beautiful and has clothing made of colors and fabrics I've never even seen in my life. Back in the day, my leaf skirt was the coolest. And now... I look like a relic from the past. And where I once was a hero, I'm now the guy that almost caused the destruction of the world." He grunted in frustration. "How am I ever going to live up to any expectations at all? I'll just disappoint."

Moana had a small twinkle in her eyes - not because of what he said, but because of the simple fact that he was talking again. He was opening up, and now she could try and help him.

"I feel like I can't even talk to these people. I'm just going to sound stupid compared to them. I hadn't originally thought that spending a thousand years in isolation would make me a loser."

“You’re not a loser. And I know for a fact that your dancing or singing won't disappoint any of them," she said with a brave smile. "And when it comes to other questions and such, you don't  _need_ to talk to them. I can keep them off your back. And if you don't want to answer their questions, just cross your arms and look down at them until they apologize for even talking to you. My dad sometimes does that when people ask him really stupid questions. It works every time."

"Huh..." Maui considered that, grinning. "That's clever.”

“If it would make you feel better, I could help you practice too,” she offered eagerly. “With small talk, I mean!”

He considered it for a moment, then nodded, smiling encouragingly.

“Okay,” she said, licking her lips as she thought about what to say. “So… I’m just some random person now… Not Moana. We’ve never talked. I only know stuff from the legends about you, and you’re in the town, getting a tour or something. Here goes…” She cleared her throat, then asked: “Did you have a good night’s sleep?”

He frowned, not sure what to reply since he had not slept yet, and he uncertainly replied: “Yes?”

As she elegantly moved her hand in front of him, he realized he had to say more, and he added uncertainly: “I slept like a baby?”

Moana frowned, not sure if that was what she was going for. “Eh... Not bad? But when unsure what to say, just say ‘thank you for asking’, it also closes the conversation so that they leave you be and go on with other stuff. Got it?”

“Yes!” he said quickly, adding smoothly: “Thank you for asking!”

She chuckled, glad that he picked it up so quickly. “Alright. Next question then. Another person now...” She stroked her wet hair back and lifted her chin proudly. “Maui, may I have a look at your tattoos?”

“Sure!” he replied quickly, and as he saw Moana shake her head, he felt confused. “No?”

“Everyone’s going to want to look at your tattoos,” she warned him. “They’re the coolest ever, and half this island is going to be obsessed with them. If you want some peace of mind, be careful who you allow to check out your tattoos. And once the kids figure out yours move…” She took a deep breath. “They’re going to stalk you and I don’t have the heart to tell five-year-olds to back off from you.”

As she smiled warmly, he chuckled.

"I don't mind kids. They're easy to please. But what else can I do about people wanting to see my tattoos then?"

Moana considered it for a moment, shaking her head as she couldn't think of anything straight away, then said: "Well, I suppose it's something you'll need to endure. You can let them watch, just be prepared for a lot of attention."

"I'd rather have them look at my tattoos then ask questions, to be honest," he admitted. "Posing is easy."

"Okay, another question you're bound to receive a lot... Will you join us for dinner?"

"Sure!" he replied. "I love dinner!"

"Okay, and what if ten people ask you the same question?"

He thought about that for a few moments. "I'll just tell them I'm eating dinner with some other folks? And I'll join them another time?"

Moana chuckled. "You're never going to have a moment off, you know. Folks are going to want you in their homes. For each celebration, for good luck, just for your attention."

"I don't see the problem," he said with a big grin. "Free food!"

She laughed. "I get why you don't mind that... But do be careful. People sometimes have a tendency to lay claim to a public figure. You need to do your own thing too. You can't always please them all."

As he considered for a moment how she knew this things, he wondered: "Did they invite you? For dinner, I mean?"

She smiled. "For a while. After my adventure with you, people were very curious. I kind of said no to everyone... After a month, it stopped. But once you say yes to everyone, they'll just keep on trying." She was very still for a moment, just looking up at the moonlight above them before she finally added: "The adventure we had was amazing... But half of the things we went through... they just wouldn't believe. Sometimes it's better to be a little mysterious, I suppose."

The frown on his face betrayed how he didn't quite keep up. "Why wouldn't they believe what we went through?" he wondered. 

"Because it was incredible - and they didn't see it with their own eyes - and there is no way to prove any of it. Some even doubted if you were real..." she sighed in defeat at that, and Maui looked at her in worry.

"Because I never showed myself?"

She shrugged. "Some thought I had made you up. Not many. But some said that my quest for you was just an excuse to sail away each summer, to get away from the island. They stopped saying that after my injury though. They thought I would give up my journeys after that moment. When I didn't, and they saw I was afraid and still made the choice to look for you, they realized that I truly believed in you, and that you weren't a lie."

The familiar ache in his heart returned. Guilt swarmed his eyes as sadness swarmed hers, and as they looked at one another, that feeling of grief only increased. They could not help but wonder if it would get better whenever they spoke of those wasted years. For the moment, each reminder of that time still cut open the wound. 

"Tell me what to do," he said softly, and as he noticed her confused gaze, he added: "Tell me what to do to make it up to you. Anything you want. Anything at all. I'll do it."

She smiled at him, moved by his words. "You don't need to do anything, Maui."

"No!" he disagreed, and as he swam a little closer, she held her breath for a moment, looking up at the imposing figure before her. "You can't just give me a home and spend so long looking for me and not want anything from me in return. Tell me what to do, I will do it!"

She hadn't felt nerves like these in years, and she gulped as she looked up at him, a million thoughts going through her mind, but none of them made any coherent sense. 

"I... I don't know," she said honestly, and as she saw the desperate gaze in his eyes, she felt worse than ever. "But... can I think about it?"

At those words, he nodded eagerly. "Of course! But you have won a favor now - or a dozen - as many as you like!"

She chuckled. "One will be enough to begin with. In fact..." She blushed. "I would ask for something, but I don't think I need to trade a favor for it. I think you already are without my asking."

He frowned, slightly confused by her words. "Am what?"

"My best friend."

She had a shy gaze in her eyes as she looked at him, curious to see how he would respond, and as she saw his grin turn oafishly big, she could not hide her own smile from him either. 

He moved closer and wrapped his arms around her in the water, lifting her higher as he hugged her, and though she couldn't move her arms in his fierce embrace, she laughed.

"You're my best friend too," he said happily. "And you're right - you don't need to trade a favor for being just that."

As he continued to hug her tightly - and she wasn't able to worm her arms free from his, she cleared her throat meaningfully, causing him to immediately let go of her, and she chuckled as she swam away from him again. 

"Come on, big guy. You need to get some sleep. As do I. Big day ahead of us tomorrow."

As she climbed out of the water, he didn't follow her straight away. He was too distracted as he watched her. His mouth was dry as he saw the way her hands slid over her body to wipe the water away, or the way she arched her back as she tied her hair together in a bun. When she looked at him, she frowned.

"Don't fall asleep on me just yet, I don't have the strength to pull you from the water."

He cleared his throat as he rushed out of the water too, glad that she had interpreted his dazed expression as sleepiness. As he watched her wrap her dress around her again, he tied his hair into a top knot, then wiped the water of his skin until the moment he felt her take a hold of his hand, and it was almost like affection fell over him like a warm blanket, easing every bad thought in his mind and warming each part of his soul. 

Smiling at each other, they made their way back to the village. The worries of before were gone for now - and in its place were warm thoughts of spending many more wonderful evenings with each other.


	9. A Scolding

Moana had hoped that she could sneak into her parent's house without being noticed, but as she neared it and saw that there was a fire burning inside, she realized that they'd been waiting for her instead.

She knew that she shouldn’t have staid so long… But it had been hard to resist Maui’s company. They had walked to his house, and once inside, she had sat with him, telling him the stories the village knew of him, and he had corrected her several times when he had spotted an inaccuracy in her retelling. She had been excited to hear of these legends from the legend himself, and in return he had thanked her for informing her of the way his story had changed throughout the centuries. He hadn’t been too baffled by all the little changes, knowing how stories had a tendency to change as they were passed on from generation to generation. By the time she had decided to go home, he had walked her to the door.

She had done something then that she had never done with Maui before. As she had bid him a good night, she had taken a step closer to him and even stood on her tiptoes in order to give him a honi. He had been a little confused for a moment, uncertain what she had wanted, but as he had leaned his forehead into hers and their noses had touched, she had smiled approvingly, and he had breathed a sigh of relief.

Honestly, she had never considered if a honi could last too long – but theirs had lasted a while longer than a single breath – and nothing could have dragged her away from him in that moment. She had just closed her eyes for a while, grateful that he was with her, and she had cherished the moment for as long as she could have.

When she had finally left, he had smiled and waved, and she had been unable to get him or his happy expression out of her mind since then.

But as she stepped into her hut and saw her mother and father sitting by the fireplace, she knew she was in a bit of trouble, and though her mother smiled kindly, her father had seldom looked angrier. 

"Hey, what are you guys doing up?" she tried to ask casually, but her voice was higher than it usually was and she had a nervous half-smile on her face that betrayed she had a good idea what was going through their minds. 

"We thought you'd be back within the hour," Tui said in a strict tone, his gaze unforgiving. 

Moana gulped. "I'm sorry," she said immediately, keeping her voice low as she moved closer to the fire and sat down with her parents. "I hadn't intended to stay away for so long, but Maui needed my help..."

"With what?" Tui bit, and his fierce tone even seemed to startle Sina, who put her hand on her husband's arm.

"Tui, please," she asked gently. "Don't assume the worst."

"If the village finds out about this!" he hissed, but Sina just shook her head at him. 

"Finds out what?" Moana asked, fiercer than she would have liked. "That Maui is having trouble adjusting? That he wanted to know what stories we have told of him throughout the centuries? That he is terrified of leaving a bad impression?" She had her brow furrowed as she looked at her father. "Or _what else_ were you trying to imply?"

"You can't just stay in his hut in the middle of the night!" he argued stubbornly.

Moana's heart nearly seemed to be beating out of her chest. She had seldom felt so angry, but she still tried to keep her voice down, knowing that these houses didn't keep voices in as well as she would have liked. 

"I can and I will!" she said stubbornly. "Especially when he _needs_  me!"

"This village needs you!" Tui argued.

"Yeah, right!" Moana rolled her eyes. "That's what you've been saying since I was a child. But you don't need me at all, father. You say that you do, but we both know that when I'm not here, New Motunui still thrives under your guidance.” She was fierce now, feeling very protective of her demigod friend and of the time she spent with him. “Maui, on the other hand, was close to breaking down, and I comforted him so he could go to sleep! He is a part of this village too now, and I'm going to look after him!"

"I never should have allowed this," Tui muttered angrily to himself. "You were gone looking for him for eight months a year... For over a decade… Need I remind you that you nearly died?! And then in the months in-between all you cared about was building that stupid house. Your entire adult life has been dedicated to him - and on the first night he's here you already spend half the night with him! What is going to become of you if you keep this up?"

Moana felt like punching something, and though she was angry, she could not show her parents that kind of disrespect. Too frustrated to talk, she got up and ran out of the house, not even sure where she was going until she eventually felt the waves crash against her feet. 

As she stared out over the moonlit ocean, she sighed.

She was exhausted - angry - hurt - and all she could do in that moment was cry. When she heard her mother's voice behind her, she didn't even startle.

"Moana..." Sina joined her in the water, taking her arm. "Forgive your father. I know it doesn't sound like it, but he has missed you. You've been gone for so long, and from the moment you came back, you only seemed to care about Maui."

"But Maui _needs_ me," Moana insisted softly with tears in her eyes.

"I know," Sina said in a comforting tone. "But your father needs you too, in a different way. Part of him thinks Maui has tricked you."

Moana startled at that revelation and frowned as she turned to her mother.

"What?"

"Maui is a trickster, after all. Or that is what the legend says. He is terrified that he would use you for his own pleasure."

If Moana's cheeks had been pink before, they were completely burning up now.

"What? No! That is... that's like the last thing... I would never!"

Sina chuckled at her daughter's undignified response. 

"Sweetheart, I know you wouldn't... You've never cared for any boys or men, and your love for Maui is something that runs much deeper than lust. Your father doesn't know how to interpret all that."

As Moana stood quietly besides her mother, she gulped.

"We're best friends," she tried to explain to her mother. "We don't do anything but hug, honestly..."

"I trust you, Moana. You don't need to explain yourself to me..."

"But I want to!" Moana replied fiercely. "Because you're the only one who can explain it to father! I can't. He won't even listen to me. He never has. He always needs to see things before he believes them." She sighed. "Maui isn't as tough as he looks. He's strong, sure, but he's also insecure and scared. He has lived in isolation for over a thousand years... The dances he knew, we have forgotten. He had never seen clothes like ours. We are more terrifying to him, than he is to us, in some ways! He has never been a part of a community as large as ours, and I think he feels like he has nothing to contribute. If he knew what father accused him of, I bet he'd run off in shame and never return!"

"I'll talk to your father..." Sina promised. "But you need to talk to him too... I get that you want to give Maui all of your time, but your father deserves some of your time as well... He has missed you, as have I."

Realizing a little better where her father was coming from now, she hugged her mother tightly, and Sina stroked her daughter's hair.

"Is your hair wet?" she wondered in surprise, and Moana chuckled at that.

"We went for a little swim, Maui and I. He needed a bit of fun to unwind."

Sina laughed softly, guiding her daughter back home over the moonlit beach. "Well, I'm glad it's just that kind of fun he needs. Your father assumed he'd indulge in other kinds of fun with you. But that's only logical, I suppose. You should have known your father when he was young."

Moana covered her ears. "Ew, I don't want to hear anything about that."

Sina chuckled. "That's how we made you."

"Nooo!" she moaned in despair. "Please mother, don't!"


	10. Parental Guidance

The following morning, Sina and Moana were up at the crack of dawn. They hadn't slept much, and as a result they were rather tired as they gathered some food in a basket, not just for themselves, but for Maui too.

Tui didn't stick around. He went out the moment he got up, muttering an excuse that he needed to check up on the fishermen, but Sina and Moana knew that he just needed more time to cool off before talking to either of them again.

There were already plenty of people going out and about their daily business in town, greeting Moana and her mother as they made their way to Maui's hut, and Moana felt proud as the hut came into sight, and as she saw there was a bit of smoke coming from the opening above the fire pit, she grinned. For years she had walked to the same house with a feeling of dread - dread that he would never be with her again. But now he was finally there, and she couldn't be happier.

Her mother knocked on the door, and they heard a cheerful voice say: "Enter!"

As they entered, they saw Maui sitting beside the fire, a fishing spear in his hand, the dead chicken now featherless and impaled upon it as he rotated it above the fire. His hair was up in a top-knot again, his hands were bloody, and there was a bit of blood on his cheek too, but other than that he looked perfectly happy as he was grilling himself this breakfast.

Sina was a little shocked at the sight, but Moana just chuckled as she approached him and put down her basket of food.

"Good morning," she said warmly. "Sleep well?"

He nodded with a smile, though he didn't seem to be completely at ease with Sina around, his eyes following her as she sat down opposite him and started emptying the basket, showing him what they had brought along. 

"You've got some blood on your cheek," Moana told him, trying to rub it off with her finger, and he held his head perfectly still and closed one eye as she tried to wipe the blood away.

Sina looked up in surprise as her daughter so fearlessly approached the demigod, and how meekly he let her take care of him, and Moana muttered: "You should wash up in the river after breakfast. People are going to think you killed someone."

He chuckled, lifting the spear to show her the chicken. 

"I did. Sort of."

She smiled warmly in response, trying not to laugh at the memory of how that dead chicken had come into his possession the night before.

"We came to join you for breakfast," she informed him instead. "Hope you don't mind?"

"Not at all!" he replied warmly, looking at the food Sina had stalled out. "And since you've brought food, it only seems fair I share my chicken with you. Shouldn't take too long now."

As he continued to rotate the chicken above the fire, Sina was looking at him. She was intrigued by all the things Moana had told her, and with his hair up in a knot, he somehow seemed kinder than the night before - a little less terrifying - and a bit better at ease.

When Sina examined his tattoos, she was amazed by all the details, but she held her breath when she suddenly saw a tattoo on his chest - of a girl on a boat, hand held up to the stars as she was measuring them, and her chin nearly dropped to her chest when she saw a little Maui tattoo jump up on the boat, offering the girl a coconut. 

As Maui looked at Sina, wondering why the woman was so quiet, he realized what she had spotted, and he immediately undid his top bun, his hair soon falling over his shoulders and chest again, covering up the image of mini Maui and mini Moana sitting together as snugly as they possibly could on the little boat.

Sina averted her eyes, but she was blushing, and Moana had noticed something too.

"Mother, were you staring at Maui's tattoos?" she asked, and as she saw her mother gulp, she realized that her mother hadn't even known they moved. She had never told anyone much about Maui, honestly, but only because she had assumed people wouldn't have believed her anyway.

Sina didn't know what to reply - she didn't even know if she was seeing things or if they were real, and Maui suddenly chuckled. 

"I know what you're thinking, but no, you're not seeing things. My tattoos can move!"

Moana's mother stared at him a while longer, suddenly asking: "You can read minds too?"

Maui frowned. "Of course not! But it's always the same. People are never quite sure what they see. Makes them believe they've drank too much awa, with the way they think they're seeing things. My tattoos - in case you're wondering - were a gift from the gods. That's why they move. Cause you know the gods; unless they can show off, you're not getting anything from them."

"So basically you're a walking representation of the ingenuity of the gods," Moana summarized.

He frowned as he didn't fully understand that word, then said: "Am I living proof that the gods are amazing? Yes. I suppose I am. They gave me my strength, my powers, my fish hook, and the only reason I'm so large is because I was nursed by the goddess Hina herself."

"Oh wow," Sina said reverently. "Not to be rude, but... do you need more food than we have here? I would hate for you to go hungry because we haven't brought enough food."

Maui chuckled. "Nah, don't worry. This is plenty. In fact, I don't need much food at all. I can go without for weeks, if need be. When I was stuck on that island, I had a very meager diet. Didn't lose any weight though. Guess being nursed by a goddess has that effect on you. I'm never really hungry. Just peckish. I do love drumsticks though!"

As he examined the chicken from up close, Moana smiled to herself. So far, she thought he was doing very well, socializing with her mother there. 

She left the two of them alone for a moment as she went through the baskets that stood on the floor in one corner of the house. Over the years, she had gathered bits and pieces that she thought he would find useful to have. The other villagers had helped, of course, and each of them had contributed in one way or another to making this house as magnificent as it was.

As Maui talked to her mother about the carvings on the wooden beams, and how he respected the craftsmanship that had gone into them, she shared with him how she had made his blanket, and if he had slept well underneath it, and even offered to make it bigger for him if he felt that it was too small, for she certainly hadn't imagined him to be so big.

Moana chuckled to herself, very amused by the two of them, for they seemed to be at a similar level. She looked until she found a wooden comb in one of the baskets, and as she returned to where Maui sat, she started combing through his hair without even warning him, and though he was a little surprised for a brief moment, he didn't mind the moment he realized what she was doing. 

“You’re not flattening it, are you?” he asked, a little worried.

“Don’t be silly. Your hair is too glorious to be flattened,” she reassured him.

"Was my hair that messy?" he wondered, and she smiled.

"No, of course not," she played along teasingly. "A demigod's hair is always amazing. I'm just trying to make it perfect."

He chuckled, quite pleased with all these compliments, until he felt how she was trying to get through a knot, and he yelped.

"Careful!" he warned her, and she frowned as she tried to continue her combing.

"When was the last time you combed your hair?"

"Did you see any combs when you visited my island?" he muttered. "I kept it in good shape by brushing through it with my fingers and washing it a lot."

He yelped again as she brushed through another knot, and Sina looked on with wide eyes as Moana groomed the demigod. Though Maui was in a bit of pain, he still didn't stop her, instead he actually seemed grateful for her attention, and she could not help but feel like this was Moana's own motherly side that was coming out as she took care of him. The demigod certainly didn't mind being pampered, and thanked her when she was done and complimented him one last time on his hair.

Moana was about to take something to eat when there was a knock on the door, and she wondered if people were already going to demand his attention before breakfast was over. But when Maui said 'enter' and they saw it was Tui, she was both relieved and surprised.

"May I join you for breakfast?" he asked patiently, and he continued dryly: "I would join my family at home but they seem to prefer eating here."

It seemed like his anger had passed, and he had come to his senses, and Moana smiled widely as Maui invited him.

"But of course! There is plenty of food here, and it's all yours, actually, so it wouldn't be right to deny you a place around my fire."

As Tui sat down besides his wife, Moana couldn't stop smiling. When Maui noticed how affectionately she was looking at her father, he felt a twinge of jealousy again, but he knew better than to act upon such unreasonable emotions. 

"Well, since everyone's here then... Shall we begin? Does anyone want a drumstick?"

"Oh, I wouldn't mind one," Tui said eagerly. "Where did you find this chicken though?"

As Moana kept quiet, looking from her father to Maui to see what he would reply, she was amused when he said: "Actually... the chicken found me!"

As he ripped off a drumstick and offered it to Tui, the chief hesitated before accepting it, looking at Maui's blood stained hands.

"Perhaps... you should wash your hands first," Sina offered gently, getting up again. "Come, I'll take you to the river. We can get some bananas from your garden on the way back, if you would like some."

As Maui got up, he followed her obediently, not meaning any disrespect, and he gave the spear with the impaled chicken to Moana. 

"Don't let it burn," he warned her playfully.

"No worries," she teased him back. "You like it nice and black, don't you?"

He narrowed his eyes in a menacing way before he followed Sina out the back door, and Moana grinned. When she turned to her father again, he had already begun eating from his drumstick, though he did look at the back door a little wearily. 

"Did the fishermen need any help?" Moana asked, trying to pretend nothing had happened the night before, and Tui acted the same.

"Everything was fine."

He had his eyes cast down for a moment before he looked up again, noticing how his daughter was avoiding his gaze, and his look was a little pleading as he said: "I do apologize for judging you so harshly last night, but..."

Moana raised her hand as a signal for him to stop. "Please, dad, you don't have to explain yourself.” She looked into his eyes with a kind gaze of her own. “I'm sorry if I made you feel like Maui had tricked me... I admit that I tend to give him more attention than anyone else, and I understand that I must better this in the future. But please give me - and him - some time to adjust. I need to figure out how he can blend in with us..."

Tui had listened and nodded quietly, before he said: "We can help with that, Moana. I'm sure there are plenty of ways in which he can be of use to our village."

“I don’t think he feels the same,” Moana admitted softly. ‘He isn’t used to being a part of a community.”

“We’ll find a use for him, Moana. Don’t worry about that.”

Sina’s excited voice startled them. "Tui, look!"

As the backdoor opened again and Maui stepped in with a gigantic smile on his face, Sina was sitting in the palm of his hand, carrying a large amount of bananas. 

"Come on, lift me, Maui!"

As Maui lifted Sina high above his head, she enthusiastically held out the bananas. "I picked them myself!” She seemed more excited than ever. “Maui raised me up like I weighed practically nothing!" She looked down at him and affectionately patted his head, something which he didn’t seem to mind at all – on the contrary, he had seldom looked more pleased. "He's like a human ladder, but better!"

Both Moana and Tui exchanged a bit of a horrified glance with one another, before he muttered to his daughter: "Like I said... we'll find a better use for him."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FYI - not doing an update tomorrow. Have a few assignments to get done and I've been writing this story for 10 days in a row (and am at about 25 000 words, so I need a little breather.) Will try and update with chapter 11 in 2 days though! Thank you all for your continued support. <3 Look me up on Tumblr - my blog has plenty of lovely Hooked Wayfinder arts that you all should see. (Look for my Hooked Wayfinder tag)


	11. Preparing for the Feast

It had taken Moana quite by surprise how quickly her mother and Maui had formed a bond. She had first believed that she would need to stay close to Maui all day long, just so he would feel at ease, but even that didn’t seem necessary.

They had led Maui to the council house first, and Tui had invited Maui to witness the next town meeting. Tui had been as reluctant to invite Maui as Maui had been reluctant to accept. Though he kept it to himself, Maui hoped that town meetings were an annual thing and the next one wouldn’t be for another eleven months or so.

After that, they had stopped by a few of the cooking huts as the older men had started preparing food for the feast that evening, and Maui thought he had never smelled anything more lovely than the delicious dishes these men were preparing. Some of them, he had never even seen before. 

He had begun to notice the abundance of chickens that roamed the island, and he liked to point out those chickens to Moana each time he thought one of them was a descendant of Heihei. To Moana’s amusement, each one of his guesses was right.

As their official tour of the island continued, it didn't go unnoticed how everyone stared at Maui. People kept their distance - something for which Moana was grateful - but she knew that once they got over their fear of approaching him, he'd have a tougher time finding some peace and quiet. 

When a group of the youngest children approached Moana with the question if she would help them practice their dance for the feast, she did not know what to respond. Maui smiled encouragingly though, and Sina promised her she’d stay by Maui’s side instead, something which unnerved Tui a bit, for he didn’t seem particularly happy with the way Sina – or his daughter – doted upon the demigod.

Moana left them behind and headed to the beach where a dozen children were waiting for her, a little nervous to dance for the demigod Maui that evening. Though Moana had wanted to stay by his side, she enjoyed the company of the children as well. Their nerves were catchy - in a good way - and she was eager to help them practice. 

In order to practice their dancing, there was one older boy that was also eager to help out: Affi.

Moana figured that she shouldn't call him a boy anymore, for he was about eight years younger than her. By her village's standards, he was a man now. He was a little bit smaller than most of the men and his youthful face didn't do anything to make him appear older though. She'd known him from the day he'd been born, and though she had found him a bit odd as a child, she now appreciated him immensely for his creative talents. He was always inventing: whether it were new dances or new music or new ways to express himself, he had an urge to create that she felt nothing but respect for. In return, he respected her for her urge to explore and change their village. They both agreed that change was a good thing, and as he banged a steady rhythm on the drums and Moana and the children practiced, they all got distracted a bit whenever he tried to change the rhythm, causing the kids to laugh as they could not keep up with the fast pace and some of them fell in the sand, too exhausted to continue. 

"Affi!" Moana said in mock-strictness, and he grinned. As she turned to the kids, she continued: "I think you're ready for tonight. In case you're uncertain of the steps, just look at me, I'll help you remember."

Some of the kids happily returned to the village to play, a few others lingered a while longer to give Moana a hug, and Affi secured a rope to his drum, hanging it over his shoulder as he stood up again. He waited for all the kids to leave before he stepped closer to Moana, still grinning at her. 

"So, Mo, you have finally found your demigod," he said slyly, and Moana narrowed her eyes at him.

"Why do I have the feeling you're judging me?" she asked suspiciously.

"Oh, I am," he admitted with a wide grin. "Never thought he'd be that big, to be honest. Like, he's even bigger than your dad."

Moana didn't know where Affi was going with this, but she was willing to indulge him. She often didn’t quite keep up with him. The kid didn't always have the most tact, but his conversations were interesting, to say the least, and she did not underestimate his powers of perception. 

"Your point being?" she wondered. 

He stroked his hair out of his fair, looking rather majestic as he did so, even for someone so small, and he smiled as he quickly explained: "I have noticed, by studying the good people on this island, that there is a certain predictability about who someone is likely to choose as a future partner. In the case of your father, he picked a woman who was not entirely unlike your grandmother in her physique. My grandmother on father's side and my mother both have very short legs and messy hair - and when you look at other families, you will see more similarities between the women and their mothers-in-law. Sometimes those similarities are even cause for strife and competition, since they remind themselves so much about their own worst defects. You have picked someone who is similar to your father now, and there is probably going to be some strife between him and Maui. It is only human nature."

Moana blinked. The speed with which he spoke always baffled her, but she had been able to keep up with his train of thought, even if she did not agree with it. 

"I did not choose Maui as a future partner," she insisted. "My reasons for getting him to this island had nothing to do with that." She hesitated a moment before she admitted: "But you are right in one regard… father does not seem to be very fond of him..."

Affi didn’t voice whether he believed her or not concerning her reasons for bringing Maui to New Motunui, but at the same time he knew that his opinion was irrelevant in that regard.

“It can better with time,” Affi offered hopefully. “Besides, don’t let the opinion of your family or any other villagers stand in your way of having a good time with Maui. You have waited _so long_ for this. Enjoy these days.”

She smiled warmly at her younger friend, appreciating his wisdom and kindness.

“Will you be performing for Maui tonight?” she wondered, hoping this would change the subject a little bit and she wasn’t surprised when he nodded eagerly.

“Of course! I’ve got some new moves – I can’t wait to show everyone, and I hope it will please him. I value his opinion a great deal. He must have seen the evolution of dance over the centuries – he must be an expert on the topic – and if my performance is to his liking, then I know no greater compliment.” Affi took a deep breath, mentally preparing himself for that moment where he would perform, but soon reminded himself that he was having a conversation. “And how about you, Mo? Are you dancing for him?”

She chuckled, amused by the question. “Not solo. With the other village women, most likely. One of our traditional dances, nothing new really… But who knows, it might be new to him?”

“Or perhaps it’s something he recognizes from a thousand years ago,” Affi said in a dreamy tone. “One can only imagine what life has to be like when you can’t die. Do you think he likes to talk about that?”

Moana shot him a suspicious gaze.

“I’m just curious, that’s all!” the young man defended himself with a wide smile, but Moana knew that his curiosity always demanded to be sated, and she had no doubt that he would try to have some existential conversations with her demigod friend.

As he saw something in the distance, he suddenly straightened his back, his grin only growing, and as Moana looked behind her, she saw it were Maui and Sina who were approaching them.

“We saw the kids return from their dance practice,” Sina told her daughter. “We were wondering where you were.”

Moana shrugged, smiling as she looked at Maui, wondering if he was still doing alright – but he had a small smile on his face, apparently not ill at ease at all.

“Just catching up with Affi,” she said casually, and the boy stood very straight, apparently waiting to be introduced or anything of the sort as his breathing got a little shallow looking at Maui so up-close. Especially his tattoos were intriguing to the young man, but Maui didn’t realize.

“You play the drum?” Maui asked, apparently intrigued by that, and Affi’s eyes widened as he hardly believed Maui was talking to him.

“Who? Me?!” he asked in a high voice. “Me, I. Yes! Yes, I play drums!”

He tapped the drums with his fingers, in no rhythm at all, and Moana had to hide her smile behind her hand. To see Affi reduced to nothing but a fanboy was a hilarious sight to her.

Even Maui seemed to doubt that the boy was able to play the drum, and he bit his lip as he seemed to consider something, but did not dare to ask it.

“Affi is actually one of the best players we have on this island,” Sina suddenly assured Maui. “He can play anything you’d want him to.”

“If you say so, it must be true!” Maui said warmly, apparently believing Sina’s judgement as much as his own. He suddenly took a step closer and gave Affi a manly pat on the back, who struggled to remain standing as the pat wasn’t particularly soft. “Perhaps we can discuss something in private for a moment? I need to ask you a favor.”

Affi was about to faint as Maui led him away along the beach, and Moana chuckled as she turned to her mother.

“What’s that all about?”

Sina eagerly told her about their time in the village, and how Maui had been impressed by all the people preparing for the feast, and how he wanted to do something in return.

“He’s going to perform?” Moana wondered, looking in the distance how Maui was tapping Affi’s drums in order to teach him a specific rhythm, and from the looks of it, the boy was a fast learner, because Maui seemed incredibly pleased by the rhythm Affi reproduced.

“Yep!” Sina said happily. “He said that he used to do this a lot – in the past – like, before he got stuck on that island. He visited every island he knew a few times in each person’s lifetime.” Her happy expression fell a little as she continued: “But Maui told me… the other islands… Those people there… They’re gone now.”

As Moana remained quiet, letting that sink in, Sina continued: “I can’t even imagine what that must be like for him… All those islands that he knew that once had people living full and complete lives, for generations in a row, now deserted… Their huts and farms reclaimed by the jungles…”

Moana wiped a small tear from the corner of her eye. It wasn’t hard for her to imagine what that had to be like for him. She even knew something that made it worse.

“He blames himself for that,” she said softly. “He stole the heart of Te Fiti and was the cause for the blight. He lost everything as a result. His fishhook, his freedom, those villages that he loved to visit… Now his fishhook and freedom have returned, but those villages… he can’t ever bring those back.”

Upon realizing how much this distressed Moana, Sina took a step closer and linked her arm with her daughter’s.

“Thanks to you, and thanks to him, our people have learned how to wayfind again. Those islands will once more thrive in our future, as our people continue to explore other islands and make new lives there.”

As Moana looked at her mother sadly, Sina gently touched her daughter’s cheek.

“Some things may have been lost to him, and we can’t return those things for him… But we can show him our own lives and invite him to be a part of that.” As she looked at Maui in the distance, showing Affi some dance moves, she chuckled. “He is going to be just fine with us. He’ll teach us those things we have forgotten, and we’ll teach him our new ways in return.”

Moana watched for a moment how Affi was now trying to imitate Maui’s dance moves, and she chuckled, realizing that her mother was right. Perhaps there was reason for sadness, but there was also reason for joy – a lot of joy, in fact.

“You should get ready for the celebration,” Sina decided. “I was about to make some lei’s. Do you want me to make one for you?”

As Moana got an idea, she shook her head and smiled happily. “No. I’ve got a better idea.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> About Affi... Hope you already realized this... But remember that kid from the beginning of the movie that's coming to Moana's dance lesson, freestyling and everything? Being suave and pouting at Moana?  
> That's Affi.   
> But he's like 19 here.


	12. Freefalling

Moana sat on the beach, gazing out over the ocean as she waited for Maui and Affi to finish up their practice. Sometimes she would hear them shout – all part of the dance – and she’d look at them for a few moments, but deciding not to spoil the surprise of the evening completely, she preferred to stare out over the water, lost in thought until Maui suddenly sat down next to her.

“Hey Moana,” he said casually, grinning at her. “What are you sitting here for?”

Her eyes lit up as she turned to him.

“I was waiting for you to finish. I wondered if you’d like to help me make some leis?”

He looked a little baffled by that proposal, and tilted his head curiously.

Realizing that he looked a bit confused, Moana wondered: “Have you never made a lei before?”

As he shook his head, it was her turn to be confused.

“I’ve always received them as gifts,” Maui admitted. “Not once did I need to make one.”

“And you never made one for someone else? Not even for Hina?”

He was quick to shake his head and replied casually: “Those were different times. The tradition of lei-giving had not begun then. It was something that took a bit longer to develop. One island started it, and soon they all copied it – in their own ways. I never made leis – just received them.”

Moana was quiet for a while. Leis were something that she had given and made on many occasions – whenever there was a reason to celebrate or mourn, she would make leis for the people who she carried in her heart. And when it came to celebrations, she would make a lei for herself, one to match her dress.

“Well, I need to make me a lei for the celebration tonight. Perhaps you’d like to join me on my quest for blue flowers?”

“Blue ones? Why blue ones?”

Moana pointed to her dress. “To match this of course. Red and pink flowers are easy to find. Blue ones… Not so much.” She looked up to the top of one of the mountains. “There should be some there… But that’s going to be quite a long walk. I think that we can be on time though. If we leave now, grab a basket, maybe also already a needle and some string, and walk for a few hours, we should make it back just in time for the celebration and I can make the lei as we walk back.”

As Moana explained her plan, Maui’s eyes lit up. “I bet we can be even faster than that. But let’s go get your stuff, I have a plan!”

He didn’t tell her what his plan was, but eagerly followed her to her hut. Tui was at home, and he suspiciously looked at Maui as he stood waiting near the door, not really knowing what to say to the chief as Moana gathered her basket.

“We’ll be back before the feast!” she assured her father. “See you soon!”

As she led the way out of the village and towards the mountain, Maui followed her quietly, his fishhook swung over his shoulder as they walked side by side through the jungle. When they reached a clearing, he grabbed her hand and stopped, urging her to do the same.

“It’s that mountain over there?” he asked, pointing towards the second-highest mountain of the island, and Moana nodded. “Yes, but why…”

He suddenly took his hook and swung it, and the next thing she knew, he had transformed into a hawk, and she was paralyzed for a moment.

Did he intend to take her there – _flying_?

He didn’t speak, but he did look at her, and Moana found her heart beat faster, and she grabbed a tight hold of her basket as she hesitated.

“I eh… I’ve never flown before,” she admitted, and Maui seemed to chuckle, turning around so she could climb on his back, and she carefully crawled onto him, throwing her arms around his neck, still holding the basket, as she tried to figure out what was the best way to sit on a _bird_.

He didn’t wait for her to say she was ready. When he felt that she was sitting alright, he jumped off and flapped his wings to gain some altitude.

Moana couldn’t speak – her throat was tight as she saw how they were rising up from the clearing. Soon they could oversee the jungle, and a moment later the village as well – and the higher he flew, the stronger the wind became, and he used it to soar ever higher and higher.

She buried her face in his feathers when she felt herself go a little light-headed. It wasn’t just the altitude, or the fact she was scared to fall. The realization that she was one of the first humans to fly like this made her a little emotional. She had always longed to explore – but more in a horizontal than a vertical manner, she assumed. Flying this high up? Not something she had ever anticipated to experience.

As Maui screeched, apparently trying to draw her attention to something, she opened her eyes again and lifted her head to look around her, seeing that they were approaching the mountain much faster than they could have on foot. The sight of New Motunui beneath her was incredible, and as Moana looked up at the clouds above her, she wondered how high up they actually were.

She suddenly noticed how he had lightly turned his head to follow her gaze, and as she saw his determined gaze, she gulped.

“No, Maui…” she tried to argue, but his head turned forward again as he flew up even higher, leaving the mountain beneath him for what it was, headed straight up to the clouds.

As he glided on the winds, ever higher and higher, Moana was quick to bury her face in his feathers once more. When she suddenly felt how the air was growing damp, she looked up again, realizing that they were now inside a cloud – and it was hard to see anything besides the white mist around them. Above her, it seemed they were breaking through the cloud, the air appearing bluer, and when they suddenly emerged above it, she gasped softly, never having expected such a sight of beauty as they were now flying above the clouds, each cloud more beautiful than the other, and as Maui looked back at her, she smiled.  

“It’s beautiful,” she said softly, still a little terrified of everything that could go wrong, but trusting Maui to be there for her just in case. As she looked at the sun above them, then back down to her island and the ocean, she decided that this was probably the best view in the world. How could anything top this?

As Maui let out another birdlike screech, she figured he could not talk to her in this form, not like he could in his shark-form, and as he suddenly turned his head to her, a mischievous glimpse in his eye, Moana frowned.

“What?” she wondered, realizing that he was flying higher still, with even the clouds seeming miles beneath them now. He gave one final screech and then did the last thing she would have expected: he transformed into his human self again.

It all happened so fast that Moana didn’t know what to do except cling her arms around his neck even tighter as they were now freefalling towards New Motunui. Maui took her hands in his though, and in less than a second, he broke her grip from his neck and turned around in mid-air, still holding onto her hands as he looked at her and her terrified expression.

“Come on, Moana!” he shouted happily. “This is just like when we went to Lalotai!”

She feared for a moment that she was going to faint, but as she looked at Maui, she realized that he wasn’t going to let anything happen to her, and she gripped his hand a little firmer, the both of them holding onto the basket now.

“This is nothing like Lalotai!” she screamed, her voice more terrified than she would have liked – but some part of her loved the thrill and the rush of adrenaline.

“Here come the clouds!” he announced, and even if the clouds looked like something fluffy they would just bounce off of, it was quite the opposite. As they emerged on the other side, they were wet, and the both of them laughed for a moment before Maui suddenly turned around, pulling Moana onto his back again before he transformed once more, now gliding down to the mountain she had indicated before, and Moana knew that she preferred flying over freefalling.

As they landed in a grassy area on top of the mountain, Moana slid off his back again, and he was quick to transform into his human self, grinning as he looked at her, standing on shaky legs.

“Well? What did ya think?”

She didn’t say a word though, but it only took her a moment before she closed the distance between them as she hugged him, and when she let go of him again, there were tears in her eyes.

“Hey, what are those about?” he wondered strictly. “Did I terrify you so much?”

She chuckled and shook her head, wiping away her tears. “Just a little – but that’s not why I’m emotional, I guess. You don’t really take others with you for pleasure rides like that, do you?”

He shrugged, trying to play it casual. “No, does that matter?”

Her wide smile caused his stomach to squeeze a little anxiously as he waited for her reply.

“So… Does that mean I’m like… like the first ever person – not demigod – to fly above the clouds like that?”

He grinned widely at that. “Yeah. I bet you are.”

She hugged him again, this time wrapping her arms around his back as far as she could, and for a moment he was afraid to breathe as she rested her head on his chest.

“Well…” His voice was softer than usual, afraid of scaring her out of their hug if he spoke louder, and he dared to put one hand on her back. “You allow me to be a part of your human life… Maybe it’s only fair I show you a bit of the perks of my demigod life.”

“Thank you,” she whispered, her eyes still closed as she enjoyed their hug, and he rested his cheek on the top of her head as he whispered back: “ _You’re welcome_.”


	13. The Blue Lei

As they gathered as many blue flower petals and orchids and small green leaves as they could, Maui remained closer to Moana than he should have, holding her basket for her. They could easily split up and cover twice as much ground that way, but he quite enjoyed being so close to her. Besides, her small fingers were so much more delicate with the petals than his could ever be. 

"You know, I've noticed something today..." Maui said as he looked at her. "Of all the people in the village, you're the only one who wears blue." She didn't look at him as he said this, but he continued playfully: "Are you sure you're not a princess? Sounds like it's a rather royal thing - to want to stand out from the crowd like that."

She chuckled and turned to him with a smile.

"I'm still not a princess, I can assure you."

He grinned at that, and she happily explained it to him.

"In fact, blue is a rather rare dye for us. These flowers are difficult to get, so it's not a common color at all. When I got injured, they made me this dress while I was recovering. It was a surprise…" She kept quiet for a few moments, picking a few more petals before she added: “It’s the color of the ocean… I suppose they liked that. And to my people, the color blue stands for wisdom and kindness, as well as for putting the well-being of the village above that of yourself. I was honored by their gift.”

She sounded very serious, and Maui was glad to have her explain that to her. He could not help but try to remember the people he had met that day, and to remember the clothes they had worn.

“Affi wore red. What does that stand for?”

“Many of the people in my tribe wear red. It’s an easy color to find on our island. It stands for passion and determination, among many other things.”

“And your mother’s purple underskirt?” he continued to wonder, very intrigued by this.

“A mix of blue and red. So a combination of passion, determination, wisdom and kindness. I think it’s a good color for my mother.”

He thought about that and nodded, finding that purple suited Sina.

“And orange?” he asked next, remembering how many people had worn that color too.

“Happiness and strength,” she explained.

“Yellow?”

She chuckled, amused by how eager he was to learn more about her tribe’s customs.

“Joy and energy.”

He was quiet for a while, looking down at his own skirt.

“Green?” he wondered, a little reluctant to ask. No one had worn green in the village – only in some leis and flower crowns had he seen that color, not in their clothing. He couldn’t help but wonder if it was an unpopular color then.

“Growth and protection,” Moana replied softly, realizing that he was thinking of himself. “For what it’s worth, I think it suits you.”

He smiled at her, glad that she thought it fit him, even if he wasn’t sure himself what color would fit him best.

“Do people choose your colors for you, or do you choose it yourself?”

“A bit of both,” she replied honestly. “In my case, it was chosen for me. But because blue is so rare, not many other people will consider to pick it. As for green – I think people don’t really see it as a character color here. No one really feels like a protector when there is nothing to protect people from – and for that I’m glad. The island is thriving, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

As she figured they had enough petals to get started now, she looked for a shaded area to sit in the grass, and Maui once more followed her eagerly, sitting beside her as she started braiding the green leaves around the string, and he was very quiet as he studied her technique for doing this. Every now and then, she added a few blue petals or an orchid to the lei, and when she was done, she tied the ends together, showing it to him.

"Beautiful," he complimented her. 

She smiled. "Let's make one for you now."

As she took a longer piece of string this time, Maui was still watching her. 

"Who taught you this?" he wondered. "Your mom?"

"Actually, it was my grandmother..." Realizing that she had never spoken to Maui of her grandmother before, she felt an urge to do so now. "Without her, I wouldn't have met you, in a way. She died the same night I went to look for you. She's the one that sent me on my quest to find you - to restore the heart of Te Fiti."

He was very quiet as he listened to her, not interrupting her as he realized there was more she wanted to tell him. 

"When I was a child, she told me the stories of the legends - of you and the other Gods. She was an amazing storyteller…” She had a sad smile on her face as she seemed to remember those stories, and Maui remained quiet as he watched her, listening intently when she continued. “When the ocean picked me, I was about two years old. The ocean offered the heart of Te Fiti to me, but I dropped it in the sand. My grandma saw all that and kept the heart of Te Fiti with her all that while. In this necklace."

She let her fingers gently touch the seashell necklace before she went on. 

"The evening that the blight came to our island, she showed me where the boats of our ancestors were hidden. It was also the night she died - but not before sending me on my mission and giving me the necklace. I took a canoe and left my island. The most incredible thing happened then..."

Maui was quiet, frowning. "What?"

Moana looked at him, hoping he would believe her as she said: "I saw her spirit leave the island."

As expected, he frowned, not understanding what she meant.

"She always said she'd return as a manta ray," Moana continued with a smile, looking out over the ocean in the distance, as though she would be able to see her grandmother’s ghost one more time that way. "So when she died, there was this chill in the air, and I saw a manta ray - or its spirit - leave the island, underneath my canoe, headed towards... well...  _you_ , I suppose."

His mouth was slightly open, and he appeared baffled as he tried to process that.

"She was the one who told me to grab you by the ear and drag you to Te Fiti," she admitted with a chuckle, focusing on his lei while she added a few more petals. "After we first battled Te Ka and you left, I was about to give up. But she came to me again. I saw the manta ray spirit approach through the water, and suddenly she was there, on my boat – human, but also a ghost – offering her guidance one final time." Her smile was sad and as she focused on the lei, she hoped she could keep herself from crying. "Without her, I would have given up for sure... I'm glad I didn't."

She hadn't looked at Maui in a while, and when he suddenly put his hand on top of hers, she stopped working on the lei, gazing up at him instead.

For a moment she had feared that her distress had worried him, but as she looked into his eyes and saw a baffled expression, she realized it was something else that was on his mind.

"What is it?" she wondered softly, and he offered her a half-smile.

"The night I left you... When my hook was almost broken and I flew away, I thought you would give up, just like me... Or I hoped you would... For your own safety..." It wasn't easy to admit, but that had been the truth. "I had no intention of returning at first, even if I felt guilty for the entire mess in the first place. But then - after several hours of flying - I saw something shining in the water - a large manta ray, almost like a ghost. It came up from underneath me, stayed right there for a long while as I continued to fly away from where I had left you.”

Moana’s lip was trembling a little as she listened to him, unable to believe what she heard, even if she wanted to.

“I tried to ignore the manta rey ghost at first, and I was a little terrified. It turned around a few times, like it was asking me to do the same, but I didn't follow its lead, and so it kept on returning to me as well. I was growing more worried though... What if this ghost was trying to tell me something had happened to you? When I finally decided to return in your direction, it disappeared so fast... But I didn't chicken out again... I needed to know if you were alright. I was just in time to help, but if I had not seen that manta ray... I probably wouldn't have returned."

Moana had tears in her eyes, her hands completely still as she looked at him, the lei in her hands now forgotten. Despite the sad reminder of her grandmother, she was moved to a smile as well, and she whispered emotionally: "She led me to you... and so when you were alone and needed me, I found you. And when my life was in danger and I needed you most, she led you back to me..."

She felt her heart swell with happiness at the thought that somehow, her grandmother had brought them together, and as she saw his kind gaze, she knew that they were meant to be - even if she did not know in what way. 

Watching her emotional smile and tears made him feel a little lump in his throat. His hands were trembling, even if he was far from cold. Not just that, but coherent thought was difficult for him in that moment, and the words that roamed his mind were heavy, numbing his senses and drowning out all sounds but the beating of his own heart. 

_Destiny._

_Love._

_Meant to be._

_Kiss her._

He felt panic in his chest at the thought of kissing her, but the thoughts were insistent.

_Love._

_Kiss her!_

Unsure how to even go about that, he brought a trembling hand to her cheek, wiping away a stray tear before he leaned in. He had never loved anyone like he loved her, he knew that much. He had never before kissed anyone - not like he intended to do - and he felt scared, moving his lips slowly towards hers.

He was stopped however, when she moved her head, her forehead now resting against his, the tips of their noses touching each other, and he was aware how she closed her eyes, apparently going in for a... _Honi_?

The disappointment that swarmed him was unexpected, but he honestly didn't blame her. She was beautiful and intelligent and brave and graceful - and he was quite the opposite.

He was a coward, ugly and clumsy and stupid and how could anyone ever look at him and see more than just a friend? He certainly didn't expect Moana to ever think more of him. He had to stop fooling himself.

Friendship was good.

Friendship was  _fine_.

He closed his eyes like she had, a small frown on his face as he tried not to cry, but he failed and a small tear ran over his cheek.

As he breathed out, there was a brief shuddering of air that Moana noticed, and as she opened her eyes again and looked at him, she had not expected to see him so sad.

“Maui?” she asked softly, breaking apart from him once more. “What is it?”

He shook his head and put on his best fake smile.

“Just emotional…” he admitted. “Because I never realized that it was your grandma that led me to you – or you to me for that matter.” There was sadness in his eyes as he asked: “Do you think she’s watching over us still?”

“I think so,” she replied quietly, adding in a more hopeful tone: “And if she isn’t, then I think it’s her way of saying that we’re going to be fine.”

Despite her cheerful voice, there was sadness in her eyes again, and as he looked into her eyes, she seemed to realize that she was unable to hide that from him, and so she tried to distract him instead.

“Would you like more blue in your lei, or more green?”

She had turned her head away from his again, and he wasn’t going to push for an answer to a question she was unwilling to hear. “Blue,” he said softly. “Even if it’s not really my color… I wish it could be. Like yours.”

He didn’t know if he was imagining it or not, but there was a blush on her cheeks that he could not explain. It gave him hope that maybe all she needed was time, and that if he waited a while longer... they would grow closer still.

  
Art by daniela-miha-arts on Tumblr   
  
  
Art by art-of-urbanstar on Tumblr


	14. The Celebration

The village was buzzing with excitement as Maui and Moana returned from the mountain. They had walked back, talking of days of old. For Maui, those were the days when he had lived with Hina – when the world had been so much simpler – and when playing and mischief had been all that had been on his mind. For Moana – those were her days on old Motunui, learning how to be a leader even if she truly wanted to be on the ocean instead.

She still loved the ocean as she had before, but being home felt good as well – and now that Maui was with her, it had never felt better.

As they made their way to Maui’s hut, Sina shrieked eagerly when she saw them.

“Maui!” she called out, completely ignoring Moana, who was amused by this. “What a lovely lei! Come, come! I have made you a gift!”

She did not wait for Maui to respond, but took his hand to guide him to their hut, and Maui quickly grabbed Moana’s hand to drag her along as well, and she laughed as she followed her mother and demigod friend.

Once inside the hut, Sina let go of Maui and lifted a large, blue cloth, grinning eagerly.

For a moment, Maui was confused, thinking it was another blanket.

“It’s an ‘ie!” Sina explained, and seeing his confusion, she added warmly: “A skirt!” Hoping she hadn’t offended him, she added: “You need not accept this gift if you do not want it, Maui. I take no offense. I just saw you looking at what our people were wearing and thought you might want something similar!”

Realizing that he was staring at the gift with an open mouth, he reminded himself to smile, and as he walked closer, he gave Sina a honi as a means to say thanks.

“Your gift is most appreciated.”

Sina was blushing a little as Maui took the skirt from her hands and inspected it.

“It’s blue!” he said happily, turning to Moana with a massive smile before he continued to inspect it, noticing how there were some strips of green in-between. “And green!”

Maui was surprised by where she had found such a large piece of clothing on such short notice, but he began to realize she had sown the fabrics together that day.

“Did you spend your afternoon making this?” he wondered, feeling honored, and as Sina nodded, he put an arm around her and hugged her close.

“Thanks so much! This is the best!”

He held the fabric in front of him, checking if it was big enough, but it seemed like there was fabric to spare.

“Goes so well with our leis,” he said to Moana, who was thrilled to see him so happy and grateful. “I’ll go and put it on right now!”

As he headed to the door, he paused for a moment, suddenly remembering that he didn’t really know what to do or where to go for the celebration.

Moana was quick to pick up on his hesitation, and offered: “I will pick you up once I’m ready myself. Is that alright with you?”

He smiled. “Of course. See ya then, Moana.”

“See ya, Maui!”

She felt a little giddy as he left their hut, and when she turned away from the door again, she saw how her mother had her eyebrow raised as she looked at her.

“What?” she asked, a little offended by that gaze alone.

“Nothing,” Sina said, smiling and looking away again. “Just thought you once told me you’d never ever go on a date in your lifetime…”

Moana had a big frown on her face, not liking it when her own words were used against her.

“It’s not a date. I’m just walking him from his hut to the village center.”

“Wasn’t talking about that, sweetheart,” Sina said, taking the basket Moana had brought back with her and putting a few of those flowers in her own hair. “You were out for a long while with him.”

Moana was still frowning.

“That wasn’t a date. We were just gathering flowers and making leis.”

“Sounds romantic,” Sina teased her.

“Mom!” She grunted. “Maui and I are just _friends_. Always have been, always will be. I stand by what I have said before: I’m not going on a date – ever – in this lifetime. But I _will_  go out with Maui as often as I like – as friends. He’s not looking for romance or anything of the sort either.”

Sina raised an eyebrow, hardly believing that. From the short time she had spent with Maui and Moana together, she had seen a bit more than just friendship, or at least that was what it felt like to her.

Moana went to her corner of the hut, where she found her clothes. The old red ones were all thrown out, but she had some white ones accented by bright blues. As she changed into another dress, Sina’s eyes were on her daughter’s back, and she suddenly asked: “Didn’t Maui ask you why you wear blue?”

She saw how her daughter stopped in her movements for a moment, hesitating before she softly replied.

“He did.”

“And? Did you tell him why?”

Moana was quiet for a while longer than her mother liked, and Sina continued: “You didn’t?”

“I told him what the colors stand for in our village. I didn’t need to say more than that.”

Sina wasn’t sure if she approved. “You should tell him…”

Moana was done putting on her other dress and put the lei around her neck again before she put a few blue flowers in her hair.

“I disagree,” she replied with steel in her voice and no expression on her face whatsoever. “He will only feel guilty if I do. He carries enough guilt as it is.”

“Moana,” Sina sighed softly, taking a few steps closer to her daughter. “Friends can help each other carry each other’s burdens.”

“He can do absolutely nothing to carry this one,” Moana snapped. “Besides, I have no problem carrying it alone. Now stop reminding me, I was perfectly happy without your meddling.”

Annoyed above all other things, Moana turned around and left the hut, making her way to Maui’s hut as fast as she could.

She was angry at her mom for having the nerve to bring this up, but she tried to forget about it. After all, Maui had no need to know. She would keep this to herself, as she had always done. 

She knocked on his door a little louder than she would have liked, and took a deep breath before she entered.

“Moana!” Maui’s enthusiasm was catchy, and Moana soon forgot about her own frustration, smiling widely at him when she saw him stand by the small fire pit, his arms wide open as he showed off his new skirt. “What do you think?”

She grinned, admiring him as he eagerly spun around for her.

“It’s gorgeous, isn’t it?” he asked, quite full of himself. “I need to give more thanks to your mom. She is the best.”

She did not let it show how those words stung her a little in that moment. Though she didn’t always appreciate her mother’s meddling ways, she always truly had the best for her and everyone else at heart. She just wished for once that her mother would trust her judgement too.

“You look handsome,” Moana complimented him honestly, and at this, she saw his eyes grow large as he stared at her.

He had expected a compliment on the skirt – not on _all_ of him – not from Moana.

“Thank you,” he said softly, blushing now, but he quickly tried to shake off that giddy feeling and he slapped his chest as though he was about to perform, manning himself up again.

“Hope this skirt doesn’t come undone when I dance,” he admitted a little nervously, and Moana laughed at the idea alone.

“That would be quite unforgettable,” she teased him, and he chuckled too, bending through his knees a little and jumping a few times, finding that the skirt remained tightened well enough.

“Shall we go and see?” he asked happily, and his enthusiasm was hard to contain. “I think I hear drums in the distance!”

As they walked out of the hut, it seemed like almost everyone was leaving for the village center now, torches lit by the sides of the paths as the night was falling.

Maui was stopped a few times, as the villagers welcomed him to their celebration and wished him an unforgettable evening, and he graciously thanked them for all their well-wishes.

As Moana stood by his side, she began to notice that it was already a routine to him. His words were often the same – polite, but smug – and he didn’t truly listen as people gave him their names, and he was a little too eager to flex or sign people’s woodworks with whatever sharp object they offered him. It seemed like a play to him - something he wasn't eager to do but wanted to get over with as soon as possible.

When she had offered him a home, this was not the relationship she had wanted between her villagers and him. But she urged herself to remain patient, and to just wait. He would stop behaving like an idol at some point – he didn’t act that way around her anymore – and the villagers would stop idolizing him once they got to know him, or at least that was what she hoped.

Moana was a little surprised when her mother walked up to them. The two women were both still a little upset with one another, but would not show it in front of Maui.

As Sina took off two armbands she had made, she gave one to Moana and the other to Maui.

“Thought that would fit well,” she said gently, this time smiling more at Moana than she did at Maui, even though the latter was grinning like an idiot as he put it on, glad Sina seemed to have a knack for knowing his size, as it fit him beautifully.

“Thank you so much!” Maui said again, admiring his wrist as the armband hung around it, its blue and green leaves going wonderfully with his lei.

“Would the two of you like something to eat?” Sina offered hopefully. “You must be starving. You haven’t had anything since breakfast.”

Moana hadn’t noticed how hungry she was, but she figured that eating would lift her spirits again. She was getting a little cranky, if not from her mother’s meddling, or Maui’s ego, then from her own hunger.

People had already begun eating, and many were sitting in the grass, eating cooked drumsticks, fresh fish, or having ‘otai, a milky fruit salad which smelled so sweet that Maui’s mouth began to water.

In the cooking huts, he found even more amazing food on offer, including yams, sweet potatoes, taro roots and poi that was made from it, as well as breadfruit, baked bananas, and half a dozen different sorts of fish. There were eggs and pork and seaweed and Maui didn’t know where to begin.

Moana was starving too, but she saw no use in waiting, and immediately began eating, even as she gathered some of the food in her hands, and Maui chuckled as he followed her lead.

As Moana went outside the hut and found her father, she sat by his side, and Maui hesitated a little before he did the same, noticing how Tui had a rather strict gaze spared just for him. He tried not to let it ruin his appetite as he enjoyed the wonderful cooking.

People moved from the cooking huts to the grass and back again, children were playing around them, teenagers sat flirting by the fireplaces and a few chickens were walking in-between all that, apparently not sane enough to realize they were supposed to be asleep.

The entire village ate until all the foods that had been prepared were gone, and everyone was quite full – some people even a little too full, feeling drowsy as they waited for the celebration to begin. As everyone gathered around an open clearing where several men sat with their drums by the side, Chief Tui stood up and walked to the middle of that open clearing, raising his hands to urge everyone to be quiet. His people obeyed him in an instant, and even Maui was impressed by the amount of respect these people had for their chief.

“Everyone… Welcome… To this one of a kind celebration… I doubt anyone has been able to miss the arrival of this particular visitor… A legend whose tales we have all been told since we were children ourselves… A demigod who helped my daughter restore the heart of Te Fiti… And now a man we are happy to welcome to our tribe.”

Tui was sincere, and Maui felt a little nervous as he looked at him.

“Maui, shapeshifter, demigod of the wind and sea, hero to all… We wish to invite you to be a part of our island – to make it your home. But before we expect you to contribute to our village life, we intend to honor you with our own performances. We hope our customs and traditions will bring a smile to your face.”

Though Maui had been a little worried after hearing the word “contribute”, he bowed his head respectfully, and Tui continued: “Then we would like to welcome our youngest as they perform a traditional dance about the theft of fire from the underworld…”

Maui sat a little straighter as a group of the youngest children gathered together on the grass, and as he looked to the side, he saw that Moana was sitting a little straighter as well, her chin held high as though she was about to perform as well, and he noticed how many of the children imitated her by raising their chins as well.

As Affi began beating the drums, the other men soon joined that rhythm, singing the tale of this particular legend while the children danced to it. Maui thought it was adorable. It was heartwarming to see how eagerly the children were looking at him as they showed off their dance moves, though he noticed that there were several children that weren’t looking at him at all, but at Moana besides him. As he glanced to the side, he noticed she was moving her hands and shaking her shoulders to the rhythm, and the children were trying their hardest to copy her in order not to screw up their dance routine.

He chuckled as he continued to watch them, and when they were done, he clapped louder than all the others, and the children were obviously very pleased with this, bowing their heads respectfully before they ran back to their parents.

Next up were a group of the village men as they sang and danced to a story about a sea monster that Maui had once fought. Though the tale was hardly anything like what had actually happened, the dance was intriguing, to say the least. There was no real shouting, only singing, and even the men were elegant as they danced, though they were still as energetic as Maui remembered from long ago. Fearing for a moment that Moana would be distracted by these handsome men, he turned to check her expression, but he was surprised to meet her gaze instead.

She had been watching him, studying his reactions to these dances, and she was happy that he seemed to enjoy it.

He smiled, glad to be witness to it all, and even gladder that Moana hadn’t been drooling over these male dancers.

As it was the women's turn to dance next, he watched in surprise how Moana got up and joined the others. Some were older than her, others were much younger, but they were all very gracious as they danced and sang, and it took Maui a little while to realize this particular song wasn't even about him. They were singing of the affection between two lovers of old - not even gods or demigods - but mortals, ancestors of theirs who had overcome adversity to be together. He was mesmerized as he listened and stared at Moana, finding her the most elegant of all, and he didn't realize that he had his mouth slightly open as he looked at her - or that Tui was suspiciously glancing at him from where he sat.

As Moana danced and chanted, she looked at him too. After all, it was only logical that every dancer did. But each and every time that she did, she met his gaze, and she had never felt so nervous about performing before. Luckily for her, those nerves only increased the quality of her performance, and even when the performance was done and Maui clapped, his eyes were only on her. 

He didn't know what to say when she joined him again, but luckily, the silence wasn't dragged out too long as Affi stepped up to perform, carrying two double-sided fire staffs that weren't lit yet. As a slow beat was hit, Affi lit the fire staffs on a torch, to the surprise of most of the villagers. To them, this was something new, and as the beat slowly picked up, Affi began to twist the sticks, the speed increasing as the rhythm did. 

The steady and loud beat and mesmerizing movements seemed to hypnotize Maui, and he felt like this was more like what he remembered. There was danger, energy and urgency in this dance, and he only regretted that Affi remained so quiet, not chanting or screaming for strength or anything of the sort. As Affi let the fire touch his skin, people gasped, but Affi seemed just fine as he flirted with the danger - and with some of the younger girls that were sitting to his left.

As the rhythm ever increased, Affi sped up the twirling of the sticks, until it seemed like he himself had control over the rings of fire as he tossed them in the air and caught them without a moment’s hesitation.

When he was done, he knelt down with his arms outstretched, the fire still burning, and the drums stopped immediately. The crowd erupted in cheers, and Maui joined them, completely blown away by what he had seen.

As Affi put out the torches, Maui turned to Moana, grinning. “That is one tough act to follow!”

Her gaze turned serious and a little alarmed, and at this he suddenly realized that it was up to him then. Nobody else would perform in that moment, and he suddenly felt a little silly for what he wanted to do. The little guy had impressed him more than he ever would have expected, and now he actually felt like he could never be as awesome as Affi.

“That was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen,” he admitted as he got up and made his way to the empty spot in the grass, feeling very self-aware as all eyes were on him. He gripped his fish hook a little tighter as he had it swung over his shoulder, not realizing that his shoulders looked rather tense. “Over a thousand years ago, whenever I visited an island, there would be a celebration… But none has been able to surprise me like your feast tonight. I’ve tasted combinations of flavors unlike any other – and your dances have only proven to me how much you have evolved. Not to mention your clothes! I can not even begin to imagine how much work goes into the weaving of all your dresses and skirts. I’m truly impressed!”

Maui was being completely sincere, and Moana was glad that it wasn’t all just another act to him now. Her people were hanging on his lips, eager to hear his thoughts.

“I can’t dance with fire like Affi can. Or maybe I could, but I would probably burn your village down by accident…”

He chuckled nervously, but the people laughed in amusement, quite charmed by him.  

“What I can show you… is a power chant which is easily over two thousand years old… This dance was often not just performed by one warrior – but by an entire tribe of warriors, to scare off their opponents and ask for the favor of the gods. I don’t know if any of you even know this language still, but if you don’t understand it…” He cleared his throat before he continued. “I will ask the gods for courage and strength, and to grant honor upon myself and all of you who have welcomed me here, like your ancestors probably did over a thousand years ago.” He looked in the direction of the kids and smiled at them. “Don’t be scared – even if I sound or look angry… I am not trying to scare you, just imaginary opponents…”

Turning to Affi, he nodded and he planted his feet in the ground, his legs apart as he stretched and inhaled.

When Affi began to beat the drums, Maui slapped his chest as he began to chant, an angry expression on his face, making him look even more impressive due to his sheer size. His voice was loud and boomed throughout the village, his tone dead serious and very low, but mesmerizing at the same time. The rhythm of the drums in combination with his claps and stamps sped up, as though the urgency of the message itself was increasing.

The older men, including Tui, looked on in wonder and amazement, while the women appeared to be rather giddy about this manly display. Children were energized by it, almost ready to jump up and slap and stamp along, and Moana felt her heart swell with pride.

She remembered how he had danced something very similar to this to distract Te Ka from attacking her. Maybe he had asked the gods for strength and courage as well in that moment – for Te Ka could have killed him just as well.

Seeing the anger in his gaze was a reminder to her that he came from a very different time than she did. As she remembered how tough it had been on him to open up and how he had thrown her off her boat so many times when he had been the slightest bit irritated, she realized that perhaps she shouldn’t have expected differently from him. He was used to confronting frustration and strong emotions with violence. She was used to talking things through. But even then, she had to give him credit for evolving along with her. He was improving – at a rapid pace – and she respected the way in which he adapted to everything new she tossed at him.

Yet she also took great pleasure in seeing him like this – chanting and intimidating and performing with every ounce of strength that he had.

When he was done, there were loud cheers for his performance as well, and he was almost immediately bombarded with questions from the men. Some of them got up and gathered by Maui’s side, eager to learn this ‘new’ dance from the demigod himself.

Maui gladly indulged them, and slowly, but surely, the men, and many children as well, were imitating him, dancing along and shouting words they did not understand, but were eager to try out.

As Moana looked around, she even saw that her father was smiling as he looked at the other men, the ground shaking a little as they all stamped the ground at the same time.

Moana crawled closer to him, sitting beside him as she looked how the villagers were eager to learn from Maui, and her father warmly admitted: “I have always believed we were a town of tradition… But seeing this, I realize how much we’ve actually learned throughout all our generations… How much we’ve grown as a village, in hearts and minds.”

She could only agree with her father, and wondered: “Don’t you wish to join them for their dancing?”

“No,” Tui replied with a gentle smile. “I am pleased just sitting here… watching our people remember their ancestors. I hope they are proud of what we’ve become.”

Moana took her father’s hand and squeezed it affectionately. “I think they are. I know I am.”

As Tui watched his daughter, he put his arm around her shoulder and kissed her head, counting his blessings.

“And I’m proud of you, Moana,” he said softly. “For never giving up, even when the world seems against you. You have brought honor to this island.”

She sighed with a happy smile on her face, chuckling a little as she saw how Maui was trying to teach the men how to put on their scariest faces, though many were just looking hilarious instead. For now, she was happier than she had been in years.

This was what she had always wanted home to feel like, as though a world of adventure awaited her, right in the middle of the island she knew so well. Her island finally felt like home – though she realized that perhaps it wasn’t the island at all that made her feel that way, or her family, or the villagers… It was Maui.

He was her inner peace, her hope and her love. She could not feel more warmth for him than she did in that moment. She hoped it would last, and immediately chased all doubts away from her mind. It would. She loved him in every way she could conceive – and hoped that it would be enough to make him stay.


	15. Women's Gossip

The celebration lasted longer than what could be considered a good idea. Moana had insisted on walking Maui home, but she was almost falling asleep as she stood on his porch, too tired to look at him without appearing a little cross-eyed.

He chuckled, never feeling truly tired, and pressed a goodnight kiss to her forehead, something at which she smiled before she returned to her own home. The sun was already coming up again, and she couldn’t remember a better night in her lifetime.

There had been dancing – a lot of dancing – and then when everybody had been too tired to dance, there had been stories… Not just from Maui, but also from Tui and the village elders. They had told each other of legends of the past, and everyone had sat around the fires, enjoying the warmth and the company.

Moana fell into a deep sleep, and even though the night had been amazing, her dreams were not. She dreamed of chasing Maui away – of reprimanding him for everything he did wrong, like when he didn’t bother to remember her people’s names. In her dream, he had then shouted at her that she wasn’t his mother, and then they had both been in tears as Maui had left her.

Though she woke a few times, she was too tired to remain awake, and she always returned to her sleep, though not for as long as she would have liked. She woke up to an annoying tapping sound in her hut.

Looking around, she saw that her parents were no longer there, but in the middle of the hut was a chicken, tapping the floor as though it was covered in seeds – but nothing could be further from the truth.

Moana moaned and covered her ears with her hands, but that didn’t help much. The chicken was relentless, and eventually she sat up, wondering if Maui was still in his own hut.

As she yawned and stretched, she brushed through her hair with her fingers and changed out of her celebration dress. She had been so tired that she hadn’t even bothered to take it off before heading to bed.

Changing back into her more casual blue dress, she decided to wear the lei again. After all – its flowers were still beautiful, and she quite liked the memory of that lei, of making it together with Maui, and of their journey to the mountain top. She had flown there – actually _flown_. It was unbelievable.

If life was just going to be a series of adventures from now on, it would be amazing. She could not wait and rushed to Maui’s hut, a skip in her step as she greeted the villagers with a wide smile, and none of them could remember seeing Moana quite as happy in ages.

Knocking on the door, she waited for him to reply, but no reply came.

She knocked again, but it remained quiet.

Frowning, she pushed the door open, only to see that the large hut was empty. She was confused for a moment, and as she walked in, she saw his old leaf skirt hanging on a hook on the wall, which meant to her that he had decided to keep on wearing the ‘ie. She was glad for that.

But that still didn’t explain where he could be, and as she walked out into the village again, she looked around, wondering where he could be. She encountered her mother in one of the coconut groves, where she was talking with some other women her age, and from the way all those women smiled at Moana, she had the feeling that they’d been talking about her.

“Hey…” she greeted them softly. “Has any of you seen Maui?”

“Not since last night,” Sina replied, but one of the oldest women of the village had different information.

“I saw him leave early this morning,” Iwalani told her, a grumpy expression on her face. “Well, maybe not super-early, but earlier than most people were up. You young folks need to learn to keep it down. I had trouble sleeping last night with all your dancing and drumming and story-telling! Kept waking up every twenty minutes! At my age, that’s not healthy!” She huffed and crossed her big arms stubbornly, which intrigued Moana because the woman’s tattoo was that of a large seagull, and the design of its wings covered her arms completely. It was a beautiful and elegant design, even if Iwalani herself was a bit of a stubborn nag most of the time.

The other women didn’t hold any grudges at all, and smiled warmly at Moana.

“We were just talking about how he seems to fancy you,” Kahiki said softly. She was a few years younger than Sina, and elegant in her simplicity. Her long hair was quite sleek and she wore the simplest pink dress.

If it had come from anyone else, Moana might have felt offended, but it was impossible to be outraged at Kahiki. She was too kind and patient and honest, and if she believed Maui fancied her…

“What?” Moana laughed nervously. “I think you don’t know him like I do. He’s Maui. He doesn’t fancy anyone.”

She was starting to realize how stupid she sounded, and wished she could take back those words, but it was too late for that now.

“He was looking at you, when the other women were dancing with you…” Kahiki continued patiently, and the other women around Kahiki nodded, which only proved to her that they had been discussing this before her arrival, and it was a bit of a scary thought. “He only looked at you, Moana. Not at the others.”

Moana was turning a little pink in the cheeks, but tried to reply as casually as she could: “Well… he has never seen me dance before… and we are friends… isn’t it normal he would look at me to see if I am any good?”

Some women considered that, and though her argument was solid, their experience told them otherwise.

“If you want him off your back, you better tell him now,” the old Iwalani muttered. “Give him the chance to focus his attention on some other girl, while leaving his dignity intact.”

She didn’t know if she had to be insulted or grateful for that remark. Though Iwalani seemed to believe she had no interest in a relationship, it still hurt her a little.

Moana liked this conversation less and less with every passing second. Trying to steer it back to what she had come here for, she asked: “So no one knows where Maui is right now?”

“He’s on the beach,” Iwalani added in a slightly annoyed tone. “With Affi, doing what Affi does best.” She paused for dramatic effect. “Absolutely nothing.”

“Iwalani!” Sina reprimanded her, but the old women couldn’t care less.

“He’s a lazy bum, and if Maui is anything like the kid, she better dumps his ass right now.”

Moana was rather upset by these accusations, but too startled to reply straight away.

Luckily, Kahiki’s words of wisdom calmed her anxious mind.

“Go to him, Moana. And don’t mind what Iwalani said. If you decide to give Maui a chance, know that we will accept it. It would make us happy if you’re happy.”

Moana didn’t know what to say, and merely nodded, not even realizing that by doing so, she was admitting to the fact that she actually was considering this possibility of Maui and her, together.

She shouldn’t, she really shouldn’t, but the thought was so lovely that it was hard not to.


	16. The Small Mistake

She rushed on towards the beach, walking for a long while before she finally saw Affi and Maui in the distance, standing on the wet sand. Maui was swinging his hook wildly, while Affi was doing the same with an unlit double-ended torch. They seemed to be having some sort of a competition – or perhaps just a practice, and as Moana approached them, they stopped, eager smiles on their faces.

“Good morning, sleeping beauty,” Maui teased her, and she had to control the jittery feeling in her stomach which almost had her giggling like an idiot at those words.

“Did you manage to get some decent sleep?” Affi asked her, smiling widely, and Moana chuckled.

“ _Decent_ might be an overstatement. But it was sleep – and I am rested.” She curiously glanced at the two of them. “So what were you up to?”

“Practicing dances!” Maui said with a wide smile. “Affi has been showing me how he has been teaching himself all these new dances, and we’ve been showing each other our best moves.”

“It has been very interesting,” Affi continued happily. “According to Maui, my fire dance has much of the same energy of his haka. He has been encouraging me to shout a little bit more in-between, or to call upon the favor of the gods and things like that. I think it works really well with the theme of the dance, to be honest.”

The kid seemed very pleased with all these improvements they’d been adding, and Moana smiled. But realizing that she had nothing to contribute to these dancing sessions, she wondered if she could help in another way.

“Have you guys had anything to eat yet?”

“No, I’m starving!” Affi was the first admit, and Maui shook his head to indicate he hadn’t eaten yet either.

“Would you like to join me to the cooking huts or would you rather have me bring you something?” Moana asked, looking at Maui with a bit of a hopeful gaze in her eyes, even if she wasn’t trying to shut Affi out.

“You can bring us something,” Maui was quick to reply, hardly looking at her as he continued spinning his hook around. “I trust you know what’s best for me.”

Though she had suggested it herself, this was not what she had expected. It was not what she had wanted… And not just that, but if the elder women were right and Maui liked her, wouldn’t he prefer to join her? Wouldn’t he want to spend each moment of every day with her, like she wanted to spend more time with him?

She was truly beginning to doubt if the women had been right about him.

“Alright. I’ll be back soon,” she said slowly, a little distracted before she turned around and left the beach again, and Affi narrowed his eyes as he realized that they were reducing Moana to nothing more but a delivery girl – and she was so much more than that.

As he looked at Maui though, he could tell that Maui didn’t see anything wrong in sending her off in the first place.

After all, Moana had literally asked him which one of the two he wanted her to do, and he had made the choice for her. He didn’t suspect anything being off and merely continued swinging his hook, humming to himself as he threw it in the air, then jumped as high as he could to catch it, landing elegantly on his two feet again.

Affi’s mind was racing though, and he couldn’t help but feel like perhaps the demigod needed a bit of guidance.

“Maui?”

“Hm?” He tossed his hook elegantly in the air again, higher than ever before, marveling at it as it spun around.

“Do you want to spend some time alone with Moana?”

Completely not expecting that question, he completely missed the moment the hook fell down, and it landed clumsily on his head, and as it bounced off he was hardly able to grab hold of it before it hit the sand.

“Wait – what?” He looked positively alarmed, straightening his posture right away, but his mouth hung open as he gazed at Affi, trying to figure out why the kid had asked such a thing. Did this kid already realize his affections for Moana? Even when he was trying everything in his power to keep them hidden?

“She is your best friend, I assume, and I don’t want to get in your way,” he said warmly, trying not to hint at anything more than friendship at this point. He didn’t want Maui to hurry away in a scare.

“Oh…” Maui seemed to relax a little at those words, and he just shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t mind hanging out with you either. I like working on dances and chilling with you.”

Affi chuckled, amused by Maui’s use of words.

“Well… I’m always lazing about,” Affi said honestly. “I don’t go fishing like the other men, and I don’t do a lot of work in the coconut grove – I’m terrified of heights… so I’m available almost all the time. Moana’s time is more precious. She has responsibilities and can’t hang out with us as much.”

At first, Maui didn’t fully realize what Affi was trying to say, but then his heart sank as he realized that he had sent Moana away to get food – even if she might not have had so much time for him that day – and he felt like a truly horrible friend in that moment.

Trying not to show how heartbroken he felt, he instead focused on something Affi had said: “You don’t go fishing?”

Affi chuckled. “No, I get seasick.”

Maui’s eyes grew large. “Seasick?!” He was outraged by the idea alone.

“Can’t stand being on a boat. I was sick when we came here from old Motunui. Thought I was going to die, even if the journey only took a few days. I was just a kid back then, but haven’t gone back on the water since then. No one’s ever getting me on a boat again.”

Maui could hardly believe it. He had seen how people had been sick as they had journeyed across the ocean, but to think of Affi – who he had considered to be one of the coolest people on the island – to have such a major flaw… It was thought-provoking and he didn’t know what to make of it.

“You’ve gone awfully quiet,” the kid said with a grin. “You’re looking at me like I’m about to die. Don’t worry – I’m perfectly fine when I’m on land. More than fine, even! Would you like to practice with my fire torches for a moment? I could make a fire and we could get them lit.”

Maui nodded eagerly at that, and by the time Moana returned, a lot of time had passed and Maui was spinning the torches as they were alight. He continued spinning them as Moana approached them, hoping to impress her, but her head was lowered, focused on the food in her hands, not on them.

His heart sank, again, but this time because she didn’t even look at him, even if he was doing something pretty incredible, for the very first time ever!

She had gathered a basket of food for them, and Affi immediately sat down by Moana’s side, and she offered him some food, smiling gracefully at the boy, and now Maui felt a pang of jealousy.

He put out the fire torch in the sand, tossing some sand over it before he knelt down by their sides, and by now he was practically craving Moana’s attention. He needed her to look at him, or he feared that his heart would break and never be the same.

He was hardly aware of how overdramatic he was feeling at that moment, and when Moana looked at him to offer him some food, she immediately saw something was wrong.

“What is it?” she asked, her tone and gaze full of worry, and he tried not to breathe a sigh of relief.

“Do you… do you need to leave again soon?” he asked, a bit of fear in his voice, and though she smiled, her answer wasn’t what he had wanted to hear.

“Yes. When we’re done eating. I have to see my father and do a tour of the island, see if everyone’s alright and such.” She licked her lip for a moment, then looked up hopefully. “You can come, if you want to.”

At this, he hesitated though, and he averted his gaze as he shook his head.

“No… I’m… I’m alright… I’d rather practice some dancing with Affi… We got plans to teach more dances to the other men too!” As he looked up again, he hoped she wouldn’t disapprove, but instead she had a small smile on her face.

“I look forward to seeing those dances then…” she said warmly. “Will you have dinner with my family this evening?”

He felt a little nervous again. Though he loved Sina – he wasn’t sure of eating around Tui. The man didn’t seem to like him much.

But he loved Moana – and he wanted her to realize that.

“Of course,” he said warmly. “It would be my honor to eat with you and your family.”

She was the one to breathe a sigh of relief now, and after they had eaten, she took her basket with her again and left.

Maui looked at her as she left, his eyes a little sad as he watched her leave.

To Affi, one thing was only becoming clearer the more he witnessed them: Maui was just as inexperienced as Moana when it came to love.


	17. The Dancing Demigod

Maui survived dinner with Moana’s family, even if Tui was constantly shooting him icy glares, and it was a stark contrast with the warmth of the two ladies in their company. He walked along the beach with Moana in the evening, and though he had had a great time dancing with Affi, this was so much better. They were quiet for a long while, but it was alright. Even in silence, he liked spending time with her.

The following days went by in similar ways. Moana was often occupied with the village, and Maui didn’t want to intrude when she was on chief-business. He quite liked hanging around at the edge of the village, alone or with Affi, and sometimes some of the younger men would join them after they had gone fishing, and they would practice dancing together.

Affi and him had even begun to practice a haka together, as well as a fire dance. They were quite a funny sight – Maui massive and tall, Affi slim and tiny – but their dancing was in sync and most of all: it was really good.

Moana was allowed to be the first to witness their dances once they were done practicing, and she applauded them as loudly as she could, showering them with compliments when they were done. As Affi left the two of them, he wiggled his eyebrows as he announced he had a date, and both Maui and Moana felt a little awkward knowing that Affi was going to spend his evening in the company of one of the village girls, doing far more than just walking along the beach.

“I think you’re going to turn even more heads when you do those dances together with Affi at the Makahiki festival in a few weeks…” she complimented him. “Are you sure you’re ready for the attention?”

Maui shrugged. “The villagers aren’t so bothersome,” he admitted. “They hardly disturb me at all. They even leave me be when they see me walk to the beach now, they just wish me a good morning.”

She was quiet for a few moments, realizing why that was so.

Maui wasn’t really interested in the villagers – never spoke to them on his own accord – and people had already learned to leave him alone because he would hardly remember them talking to him. All he seemed to be interested in was dancing the boredom away – and part of her feared that he’d grow sick of the dancing soon, and she wondered if he would ever be content with a simple village life when that day came to be.

Her father had told her since the day he had arrived that Maui wasn’t a village person – that he hardly had an interest in her people – and that he wasn’t contributing, but instead becoming a lazy bum like Affi. Moana didn’t agree with him – not always – though she sometimes caught herself disliking that part of Maui too.

He could be just as sweet as he was arrogant, and sometimes it melted her heart, other times it annoyed her to no end.

Not just that, but she still didn’t know if he was able to love her when he mostly seemed to love himself. He was always showing off in front of her, and she didn’t want to inflate his ego too much, and so she was starting to grow a habit of ignoring him sometimes, even when she didn’t really want to.

True, Maui did show off in front of her. He wanted her to look at him, hoping that she would change her mind about him and love him too – but he wasn’t sure if it was working. Maybe they were just meant to be good friends and nothing more, she certainly didn’t always seem very impressed, and sometimes she didn’t even look at him at all, even when he was doing something incredible, like somersaults while holding flaming torches, or when he was demonstrating a very loud haka.

For now though, he noticed Moana’s distracted gaze as she failed to reply to his remark about the villagers. Did she disapprove of his words? Had he said something wrong? As he cleared his throat, she seemed to realize she had to say something.

“Prepare yourself for a lot of attention then,” she suddenly said with a smile, though she didn’t look at him. “I think the girls are going to be quite impressed with your dancing. They might honor you with a dance of their own, at the festival.”

Maui frowned, not completely keeping up.

“What dance?”

Moana chuckled. “At the Makahiki festival there are usually a few fertility dances demonstrated – to lure potential partners into a relationship or at least a night of fun.”

She had a small blush on her face now, and Maui wondered if she would honor him with such a dance too. He felt the color rise to his own cheeks as he considered the possibility of Moana dancing for him, as a prelude to a relationship. His heart beat even faster as he realized that perhaps she had not made a move on him yet because tradition dictated her to wait for the festival.

“Though I don’t know if many of the girls will dare to dance for you…” she teased him, and at this he raised an eyebrow.

“Why not?”

“They’d probably worry about me holding a grudge against them, for stealing you away from me,” she continued with a small chuckle. “I’m quite protective of you.”

He smiled too, his teeth bare as he looked at her. “I don’t mind that, honestly.”

As she looked up at him, she saw his kind gaze, and she almost immediately averted her eyes again, looking at his long hair instead, realizing that she hadn’t seen mini Maui or mini Moana in ages, and it did seem like he was trying to keep them hidden from her sight, but even that didn’t matter.

“I do want you to know that… if a girl dances for you… you’re allowed to eh… just follow your instincts...” She tried to say it casually, but her expression had seldom been graver. “And we made that big house not just for you, but also if eh… if you want to have a family.” She quickly added: “But if you want to wait a hundred years or so, that’s fine too. No one is pressuring you into anything you don’t want and you have to want it too, obviously. But eh… we won’t judge.”

Maui honestly didn’t know what he was hearing. Was she telling him to sleep with other women? It was a disturbing thought to him, that she would advise this so casually to him, and he wondered what was behind it.

He didn’t really respond to her, but instead she asked him if he wanted to go for a walk, and he was quick to accept, if only to divert the attention off the previous topic.

Trying to steer the conversation away from anything awkward, he wondered: “Moana, I have been wondering this for a while but… Don’t you have any tattoos?”

Everyone had tattoos in New Motunui – and Affi had been telling him how he wanted to get some fiery designs on his arms. But Affi was much younger than her, and it was strange how she seemed to be the only person on the island that didn’t have one.

“No,” she replied briefly, not elaborating on that response as they continued their walk, and Maui frowned at this.

“Why not?”

She was quiet for a little while, her gaze serious as she looked ahead, and she quietly replied: “Makes me stand out more, I guess.”

Once again, that was something Maui didn’t understand.

“But tattoos make you stand out too,” he argued. “When you have a whole bunch of them, like me, then people would notice you too.”

Her lips curled into a sad smile at those words, but she still didn’t look at him.

“Moana?” he asked softly, noticing that she was holding back – and it wasn’t the first time either he had had that feeling. She was keeping things from him – irritations, he presumed.

He stopped walking, and though she stopped walking too, she didn’t really reply, and he scratched the back of his head as he tried to find the right words.

“Did I do something wrong?”

She had not expected him to ask such a thing, and she looked at him with a slightly surprised expression. He even had a guilty expression on his face, and now she felt bad for being so brief with him.

“Do I annoy you?” he asked, hardly daring to look at her. “I notice you’re very quiet sometimes… And you ignore me sometimes… And… I don’t know… sometimes I think you don’t like me anymore.”

He was being completely honest with her, and as his mask of confidence had fallen away now, she felt truly horrible for making him think these things.

“Oh no,” she said softly, her tone more compassionate than it had been in days, and as she took a step closer, she put both her hands on his. “Maui, I’m…” She didn’t know where to begin, and all that frustration – not just with him, but mostly with herself, came out in the form of tears. She didn’t like to cry in front of him, but she could hardly control it. “I don’t just like you,” she admitted. “I love you more than anyone – but I would be lying if I said that I’m not annoyed at times.”

Maui’s heart was fluttering at her confession, and instead of being insulted by the fact she was annoyed at times, he felt hopeful because she would admit to loving him, and as he put one hand on the both of hers, keeping her close to him, he added: “The last thing I want in this world is to annoy you! Tell me what to do!”

She shook her head stubbornly, not looking at him. “It’s not right for me to tell you what you can or can’t do. You’re a demigod, and I’m just a nag if I allow myself to think I should have the right to control you.”

He shook his head quickly, and knelt down in front of her as he noticed she was looking down again.

“Moana – asking me to do something doesn’t mean you control me. As long as it’s a question, I still have a right to say no, right?”

She supposed there was some sense to his words, but not completely willing to agree with him yet, she just shrugged.

“Moana, please, tell me…” he urged her softly, and she took a deep breath.

She hoped she could say it tactfully, but she was rather emotional. Still, it needed to be said. She’d been holding back for long enough.

“You haven’t really done anything useful since you’ve arrived,” she said quietly, hardly daring to speak up, and with reason.

Maui looked like he’d been slapped in the face.

“What do you mean?” he asked, his tone offended. “Have I not entertained your people?”

She frowned now. “Yes, for one night. And then all days after that, you’ve spent on the beach, hanging out with Affi. You haven’t cooked, you haven’t looked for food, you haven’t made anything with your bare hands…”

He let go of her, annoyed now, and got up again, no longer kneeling in front of her. “I’ve been making new dances to entertain your people! To dazzle them with delight!”

Moana rolled her eyes, annoyed that he wasn’t even able to see that her people didn’t need new dances, and she sounded as irritated as she felt as she continued: “Dances aren’t going to feed my people, Maui! And did you know that they’re building a new hut? For Luana and Maleko – they are going to live together now that she’s pregnant. And every day I see people struggle to get all the wood together, while you could easily lift an entire tree and carry it there without breaking a sweat. Or I see the fishermen pulling their canoes ashore, their hands calloused by the ropes, while you could just lift those boats and help them out that way. But no, _dancing_ is more important, isn’t it?”

Her sarcasm stung him, and he had crossed his arms defensively now, and he was looking down at her in slight anger, even if he did recognize that part of her was right.

“I bet you don’t even know who Luana and Maleko are,” she continued, unable to stop her sharp tongue, not yet fully aware of the damage she was doing. “You don’t know who anyone is, because you don’t give two shits about anyone but me, Affi and my mom.”

“That’s still two people more that I care about than before I got here!” he replied defensively, pointing his finger at her. “It’s not my fault I’m not made for village life!”

“You’re not even trying!” she shouted back at him, unable to keep her voice calm now.

“You never told me to do any of those things!” he shouted back, spitting while he talked.

“I shouldn’t need to tell you to do those things! Normal people would see the work for themselves!” she replied harshly. “If I had actually seen you put in some effort, I might have had some sympathy, but I only ever see you lazing about with Affi!”

That struck another nerve with him, and his face contorted with quiet rage as he said: “Well then. I’ll spare you that sight and leave, I suppose.”

Though she was still angry, she immediately startled at those words, feeling like she had been hit with a blunt object.

He didn’t look at her though, instead he had turned around, his fish hook in hand as he swung it and transformed into a hawk, and as he flew away, Moana didn’t know whether to shout at him that he had to come back – or that she had to shout at him that he should stay away.

She was just so angry still, and as he flew further and further away, until he could hardly be seen anymore, she picked up some shells from the beach and started hurling him into his direction – even if he was already long gone and most of those shells just fell in the water a few arm lengths before her feet.

“You bastard!” she shouted. “You selfish, ignorant prick!”

As she kept on tossing shells and pebbles into the ocean, she waded into the water further and further, until her hands were empty and she was standing waist-high in the water, her mind still raging while her heart was beating furiously and desperately at the same time.

She stood in the water for a long time, and when her rage ebbed away, it only made room for tears, and she cried bitterly as she realized that once again, their arguing had exploded unlike either of them had probably wanted.

This time, however, she didn’t know if she was willing to look for him on the ocean for another ten years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I received two amazing fanarts this past week, both for Chapter 13: The Blue Lei. If you return to that chapter and scroll to the bottom, you can watch the two amazing fanarts I was gifted. <3 Massive thanks to Dani and Urbanstar for dedicating so much of their time, effort and talent into making me such wonderful gifts. <3 I am incredibly glad to see those arts go around Tumblr, not just for the sake of promoting my fic, but for the sake of promoting our beautiful ship. :-) There needs to be more Hooked Wayfinder art out there, and it's great to see you guys contribute to that!


	18. Heartbroken

She didn’t return home that night.

She sat by the shore, her arms wrapped around her legs, hiding her face against her knees, crying and regretting so much more than just what had happened today.

Whatever she had wanted – it hadn’t been this. He still didn’t deserve a life of solitude – he still deserved a loving home – even if he hadn’t been contributing much. She had lost her temper, and it was inexcusable. She shouldn’t have. But now it was too late to change that.

As night had now completely fallen, the village had grown quiet, and as she walked in-between the huts, she found that she could not go home. She could not face her parents, not now.

She went to his hut instead – wishing with all her heart that once she’d open the door, he’d be there, sleeping.

But as she stepped inside, the hut was empty, and her heart crushed again under the knowledge that he had left, maybe for good.

The blanket he used for sleeping lay close to the fire pit, and she found herself wrapping it around herself, even more tears coming to her face as she realized she could pick up his scent in this – but that too would be gone with time.

She lay down where he had slept those few weeks he had spent on their island, and she cried and missed him more than anything. Perhaps she’d been stupid to think he could have had a normal life here. Perhaps she’d been wrong to assume a demigod could live like a normal man. Perhaps she never should have disturbed him on his island – and she knew that the memory he had had of her before had been better, and now he’d resent her for her harsh words for the rest of his days.

Unable to sleep, she just lay there, her heart aching, and it did not lessen when morning came and the village came to life. There was noise outside as the chicken and roosters were looking for food and children started playing and Moana sat up again, smelling the blanket again, hoping to hold onto this memory of his scent, for memories would be all she could hold onto from now on.

Looking around her in the hut, she saw that all the items that the villagers had collected for him were still there, but she suddenly startled when she noticed something.

The paintings on the walls… Something was different…

As she got up and headed to the walls, she suddenly realized what it was. All her drawings of his amazing feats on their quest to return the heart of Te Fiti, had an addition. She was in them too now. He had drawn her by his side, in every single painting.

She cried even louder as she realized that, resting her head against the wall as she held the palm of her hand on an image of him.

Even she knew that she was pathetic, but she couldn’t stop it. She would allow herself this pain. She deserved this pain.

It was afternoon by the time she returned home, and she had hoped that her parents would have been out, but with her luck, it only figured that they were both at home, and she had hardly taken a step inside or her father started shouting at her.

“Where have you been all night?! Wasn’t I clear about it last time when I said that you weren’t allowed to spend the night at his?!”

Tui had been going over his reprimand all night and all day – and he was so focused on delivering the speech he had practiced, that he did not notice something was wrong with his daughter until Sina suddenly stepped up to her.

“Moana, what’s wrong?” Sina asked immediately, the worry in her voice causing Tui to actually look at his daughter for a change, and as he noticed she’d been crying, he felt even angrier than before, but for completely different reasons.

“Did he hurt you?!” Tui demanded to know, walking closer to his daughter too, feeling protective now. “Demigod or not, I will make him pay if he has dared to hurt you!”

Moana only cried louder at those words.

“No, no, nothing happened,” she tried to assure her parents through her tears, but obviously that wasn’t assuring them at all. “He didn’t hurt me… We… we had a fight.”

As her mother rubbed her back, her voice broke as she admitted: “He left.”

Sina was quick to hug her, and she embraced her mother tightly, crying harder than before as she had the pathetic idea that she would never get to hug Maui again, even if she knew no one she rather hugged in this world. It was painful for her, and it was also painful for Tui to watch.

“Good riddance,” Tui said, putting his hand on her shoulder. “He did not deserve you, Moana. You deserve a hard worker – someone who cares about your people – and like I told you from the first day: he is not a people person. He had a lot of muscle, but not the brain to use it properly, and apparently not the heart to care for you either, breaking your heart like this.”

Those words struck a nerve with Moana, and she pulled herself out of her mother’s embrace as she looked at her father, anger on her face now.

“He did not break my heart as much as I broke his,” she said angrily, not looking away from her father’s eyes. “I sounded just like you. Heartless and cold and calculating a person’s worth only by measuring what they’d done for the village. Maui may not have done much for Motunui, but he has done plenty for me. He gave me a sense of belonging I had _never_ felt before. Why wasn’t that enough? Why did you have to put the thought into my mind that he needed to be more than who he was? If I’m heartbroken now, then you’re just as much to blame as Maui is!”

Tui gulped and stared at Moana in confusion for a few moments, before he sought out Sina’s gaze, who only needed to nod her head in the direction of the door for Tui to know he had best to leave without arguing about this.

As he stepped out of the hut, Sina staid by her daughter’s side.

“Do you want to tell me exactly what happened?” Sina asked sadly. “I can’t believe he’s really gone. I really liked him.”

Moana sniffed, wiping some tears from her eyes. “He liked you too, mom. A lot.”

Sina listened patiently as her daughter tried to retell what had happened the evening before – how she had repeated her father’s words to him without considering his feelings, and how they had both exploded in their arguing, and how he had flown away over the ocean, probably to never return after her harsh words.

“Will you look for him again?” she wondered, and Moana shook her head.

“I don’t know if I can do this again, travel for ten years to find him…” She was crying. “I nearly died last time. If I were to die this time, he would never forgive himself either.”

“He might still be back,” Sina tried to offer. “Perhaps he just needs some time to cool down. Your father is like that too.”

“I don’t know,” she cried. “I hope he’s like a regular guy, but he’s not a regular guy. He’s a demiguy – and his emotions last longer, in some strange way.”

Moana was emotionally exhausted from all the crying, and when there was a knock on the door, she felt the slightest slimmer of hope that it was Maui – and that he had returned.

But the knock was too light, and the person who stepped in was too small – and when Moana realized it was Affi, her heart fell. His expression already told her enough: he had been looking for Maui, still had the unlit fire torches in his hands – and upon seeing her tearstained face, he already had a pretty good idea about what had happened.

“Is he gone?” he asked softly, sitting down by Moana’s side, and as she nodded and cried tears of sorrow and shame, Affi was quick to hug her. “It’s okay… He might still be back…” As Moana kept on crying, unable to talk or say anything because her throat felt like it was squeezed shut from emotion, Affi was the one who spoke instead: “He… He didn’t run because… because of your accident?”

Moana immediately shook her head, sniffing away her tears as she bitterly said: “He doesn’t know about that. Will never know about that, as far as I’m concerned. He’d only blame himself.”

“Then why?”

“I blamed him for not helping out the villagers – for showing no interest in them.”

Affi frowned, not approving of that. “I think you gave him too little credit. Just because small talk isn’t his thing, doesn’t mean he has no interest in them whatsoever. He really loves teaching them dances. He’s good at it too. You weren’t there to see, but the fishermen came over to dance with us a few afternoons ago. He truly was a good teacher – even if he didn’t ask for their names.”

Those words only made her head feel heavier. She had been too hard on Maui, she had already known that, but it was no fun to have it get rubbed in again.

Sina had been present for that exchange, and she too missed Maui already. Turning to Affi, she looked at the boy for guidance. “What do you think we should tell the villagers? Should we tell the truth, or should we keep quiet for a while and say we don’t know why he’s gone?”

Affi shook his head. “One look at Moana and everyone will know that those two had a fight.”

Moana was slightly insulted, but she presumed that Affi was right about that. She wasn’t good at hiding her emotions, least of all from her own villagers.

“Your father and I will handle it,” Sina said softly. “They won’t bother you with questions, Moana.”

She frowned, irritated with herself. “I deserve to be bothered with questions.”

“No, you don’t,” Sina insisted. “Stop beating yourself up about this. We all make mistakes… Hopefully Maui will realize that that was all it was, and hopefully he’ll be back. And if you’re not willing to go and look for Maui this time, I will. He needs a home – whether he pulls his weight in the village or not, no one deserves to be alone for as long as he is used to be.”

Moana crawled towards her mother and hugged her tightly, unable to express just how much she loved her. Somehow, she always knew precisely what to say to make her feel better in her darkest moments.

“Father won’t like you going to look for Maui,” Moana muttered, not sure if she was serious or attempting a joke, and she closed her eyes as she buried her head in her mother’s neck.

Sina chuckled. “Your father’s so much more fun when he’s jealous, sweetie.”

“No, mom, please, no.”

Sina smiled warmly at Affi as she explained with a wink: “Makes him think he has something to compete against when we make love.”

Her daughter moaned desperately. “Mom!”


	19. Reunited Friends

Two days passed. Two miserable days in which Moana sulked in her family’s hut. In the evening, she went to Maui’s place – but he wouldn’t be there – and she’d allow herself the pain and misery that came from looking at the drawings on his walls. Then, with renewed guilt, she’d return home and cry herself to sleep.

The third day, she was still sulking as she lay in her corner of the hut – not sleeping – not getting up either. Her parents had already left the hut hours before, and even though it was noon, she didn’t feel like doing anything. She wasn’t hungry – she didn’t want to leave her hut – and she tried to shut out the sounds of the children playing outside.

When the door suddenly swung open, she sat up in an instant though, and as she saw it was Affi, and that he was smiling widely, her heart skipped a beat.

“He’s back?” she asked breathlessly, and Affi grinned.

“He’s back!”

Moana didn’t know what to do, too paralyzed to react, and Affi moved over to her and sat down in front of her, taking her hands and squeezing them.

“He came in with the fishermen, just now!” he told her full of excitement. “Was helping them pull their boats ashore and helping them carry their baskets, I think he’s around the cooking huts now.”

Moana couldn’t believe it. Not only had he returned, but he was _helping_.

At Affi’s words, she started crying from emotion, and he offered her a big hug, which she could not refuse.

Once she had calmed down a bit, she wiped her tears away and followed him through the village, running alongside him towards the cooking huts, but not seeing Maui anywhere.

“Where did Maui go?” Affi asked one of the older men, who just pointed in the direction of the coconut grove.

They immediately ran off again, and Moana’s heart skipped a beat as she saw he had climbed into one of the trees, and was tossing some coconuts down, which the children were eager to pick up once they landed in the grass.

Moana and Affi walked over to the bottom of the tree, and when Maui saw them approach, he started climbing down again, smiling carefully but not quite daring to look at Moana just yet, aware that many other villagers were around, and this was not a time to apologize.

As Moana looked up to him, she didn’t know what to say, but her eyes were full of tears again, even if she was smiling. This was more than she could have ever hoped for, and while she tried to look for words to say, Affi had no such hesitations and was quick to walk over to Maui and hug him.

The boy couldn’t even begin to wrap his arms around the massive demigod, clinging to his shoulders instead, and he closed his eyes as he rested his head on Maui’s chest.

Maui looked a little surprised at this, and gently patted Affi on his back.

“I’m so glad you came back,” he said honestly. “In the short time you’ve been here, you’ve made my life so much richer.”

Now it was Maui who got a little emotional, and as he put his hand on Affi’s shoulder, he honestly replied: “And you mine…”

His gaze shifted from Affi to Moana, hoping that she realized that the same was true for her.

“I eh…” He realized that he could not stand around like this much longer or he’d go insane, and he added: “I promised to get these coconuts to the cooking huts… Will…” He turned to Moana. “Will you eh… can I…”

“I’ll join you,” she said carefully, hoping that he had wanted to ask her along in the first place. “And maybe… we can eat something together?”

He nodded quickly, glad that she was the one to suggest it. He hadn’t known how to ask her precisely.

“I have to go and help my mom with the roof,” Affi said, realizing that it was best to leave the two of them alone and now thinking of a graceful way to retreat. “With the rain season coming, she wants me to change some of the bad leaves. I’ll see the two of you around?”

“Of course,” Maui said with a grin, and Moana smiled gratefully as Affi left them again.

As Maui picked up the heavy basket of coconuts, Moana almost wanted to offer her help to him – but she soon realized that would have been silly. He didn’t need help, not with that at least.

While they were walking towards the cooking huts, children still came up to Maui to put more coconuts in his basket, and he laughed at their shy enthusiasm.

In the huts, Maui gave the coconuts to the older men, who were glad they had some help, and though part of him wanted to stay to help, he also wanted to talk to Moana. The longer they remained around people, the more awkward it would get.

As he bade the men a good afternoon, he led her to his hut, and he let her step in first, before he followed her and closed the door behind them.

He wanted to apologize then and there, but next thing he knew, Moana had taken a step closer to him and was resting her head and hands against his chest, leaning against him as she whispered: “I’m so sorry, Maui… Please forgive me.”

He was too baffled to move, standing there like a bit of an idiot before he came to his senses and replied: “There’s nothing to forgive… You were right. I wasn’t contributing, and the fact that I’m a demigod is no excuse for that.”

He gently put his hands on her shoulders, her soft skin against his doing nothing to ease his anxious mind. He quickly let go of her again.

“Yes it is,” Moana muttered, taking a step back again as she looked up at him, her look regretful. “How can I expect you to live exactly like us when you haven’t been part of a community for so long? I was impatient, and rude, and I had no right to hold all those things against you. I should have shown you more understanding and I shouldn’t have kept all of this to myself for so long. I allowed my frustrations to erupt, and that’s something I never want you to go through again. You deserve so much better than that.”

He shook his head, disagreeing with her. “No, _you_ are the one who deserves someone better. Someone who listens. Someone clever, a man who sees the work where it is and who can help you.” He sighed wistfully and gently rested his hand against her cheek, glad that she leaned into his palm and didn’t pull away, and he smiled sweetly. “But you know what? I want to try and be that man.”

She smiled emotionally, and he was glad for it, continuing in full honesty.

“While I was gone, I couldn’t live with the thought of leaving you again.” He paused for a moment and added honestly: “Well, at first I could. For a day or so. But then, I realized that I had left without ever responding to the most important bit of that entire conversation we had on the beach.”

“What bit?” she wondered in a slightly worried tone, not sure if she understood him, and hoping that this wouldn’t restart their argument.

He took a step closer to her, almost standing completely against her now, gently tracing her cheek with the back of his hand, smiling sadly.

“I love you too.”

It wasn’t an easy thing for him to admit, but it felt good to finally say it.

As she smiled emotionally, he thought the time had come to seal that confession with a gentle kiss, but as he leaned into her, he suddenly noticed how she put her hands on his chest – not to relax into him – but to slightly push him away.

“Please, Maui,” she said softly, looking down. “Don’t.”

He honestly didn’t understand – and though he felt disappointed, he wasn’t angry with her.

“Okay,” he said meekly, not sure how to deal with this rejection. Then again, perhaps it was only normal that she would push him away now. Their previous argument was too fresh – emotions had run high – and perhaps they needed some time to settle into a more peaceful life again.

“It’s not you, it’s me…” she said softly, feeling like a cliché, even if it was true. “Even if I would want to, I just can’t give you the life you deserve… Can we… can we just be friends?”

Though he was worried about her, he did not dare to voice that worry just yet, wanting to do right by her and ease her anxious mind first. “Of course,” he said warmly. “We _are_ friends. And I will always be your friend, no matter what.”

Those words comforted her, and as she hugged him tightly, he wrapped his arms around her and lifted her up a little, holding her close.

“You can tell me anything,” he continued softly, still holding her. “Even if it’s bad stuff about me… I can’t promise I won’t run off in anger, but I promise I’ll always return.”

As he felt how she embraced him tighter, he knew that his words had landed well, but still she remained very quiet. Was she still holding things from him? Even now?

Perhaps, if Moana couldn’t talk about these things… Sina could. It was with that thought that he dropped the subject and proposed to go look for some bananas outside, and he was happy to see that this made Moana happy too. Once he understood what was bothering her, he could help her further. But for now, he would just enjoy their friendship as it was and give her all the time she needed to open up to him.


	20. The Investigation

Maui had made up his mind: he was going to be everything Moana could possibly want him to be.

He helped wherever he could, joined the men on fishing trips, helped the older man when they were cooking, even sat with the women sometimes as they were weaving baskets. He even attended the town meeting, but not before asking Affi what was wise of him to do.

Affi had just advised him to be quiet and to listen, and to come back with questions after it was done. He had been very quiet indeed, and afterwards he had asked Moana a dozen questions, all of which had surprised her.

She was impressed by him, and had not expected him to make such a big change, but now she even had to drag him away from other villagers sometimes, just to have some time with him herself.

They ate together whenever they could, sometimes in the company of Tui and Sina, other times with Affi there, but eating alone was still what they preferred most. They liked to climb up the mountain and sit down on some soft grass as they overlooked the ocean, sharing fruits and dried meats and fish as they talked about the village.

A week after his return, while they were having such a little picnic, Maui was rather quiet. When they were done eating, however, he asked: “Am I doing alright?”

He was very quiet, nervous even, as he waited for her response, and she was a little perplexed as she looked at him.

“Alright?” she repeated. “With helping, you mean?”

He nodded, anxious to hear her judgement, even if her warm smile eased his mind a little bit.

“Maui, you are doing magnificent!” she said full of enthusiasm, and he looked relieved to hear that. “I could never have expected anyone to help out as much as you have the past week. I have not needed to ask you one thing, and I’ve seen you working from morning until evening. I could not be prouder of you!”

He had emotional tears in his eyes and averted his gaze, wiping his tears away, and as she noticed this, she crawled over to him to hug him, even if he didn’t hug her back, a little ashamed of his emotions in that moment.

She pressed a sweet kiss to his cheek before she hugged him further, and as he hugged her back now, he could feel butterflies once more. He felt them more often than not now when she was with him, and as she pulled back again, he wondered if she felt the same way about him.

Sure, she loved him, but not like he loved her, or did she?

Not sure what held her back each time, he decided a conversation with Sina on this was long overdue, and the following morning, after Tui and Moana had left to do their rounds, Maui knocked on the door of their hut, and entered when Sina replied.

“Maui!” she said warmly, putting her needlework aside as she stood up. “So good to see you this morning! I’m afraid you just missed Moana, she’s out with Tui.”

“That… That’s alright,” he said a little shyly. “I came for you, in fact.”

Sina raised her eyebrows, not sure what to think of that.

“Oh?”

She sat down again, and indicated to Maui that he should sit with her, which he did without hesitation.

“I’m not sure where to begin…” he admitted, biting his lip for a moment. “I’m not… not sure if I’m going about this the right way.”

Sina frowned and tilted her head compassionately. “Maui, you’re allowed to make mistakes like any other human, you know? Why don’t you just tell me what’s on your mind? Is it Moana?”

He nodded quickly, glad she already seemed to realize to some extent what was going on.

“I’m… I’m in…” Saying it to Sina was harder than he had expected, and he just blurted it out instead: “I love your daughter…” His blushed fiercely after admitting that, and as he looked at Sina and saw how moved she seemed by those words, he realized that she was not upset. She did have some small tears in her eyes though, but she wasn’t angry.

Feeling like he had to defend his emotions, he continued: “I know she has a lot of responsibility, being the next chief and all that… And I also understand that she’s probably not allowed to choose her own husband as long as Tui is alive… But…” He seemed frustrated now. “I know she loves me too – though maybe not in the same way that I love her – and I… I don’t know what to do.”

“Oh Maui,” Sina sighed emotionally. “What you’re doing for Moana has not gone unnoticed to me. I know she cares a great deal about you. You’re doing great in winning her heart, but Moana’s situation is a little more complex than how you think it is.”

At those words, Maui remained very silent, hoping with all his heart that Sina could clear it up for him then.

“It’s true what you said, that Moana is not allowed a relationship because of who she is,” Sina explained patiently. “When she was young, we thought she would oppose that, but she never actually did. She wasn’t interested in boys, all she wanted to do was go out on the sea. She didn’t care that other kids her age were already flirting and kissing and having relationships, and she never questioned or opposed the fact that she was to remain pure.”

They were both quiet for a few moments, before Sina continued: “I honestly don’t know if she wants to be with you or not, Maui. I can’t say that I’ve seen her in love before, so I can’t say if she’s in love with you. But she loves you – deeply – but I don’t know if it’s romantic love to her… Have you spoken with her about this?”

He hesitated, then shook his head.

“Not really… But she told me she loved me, and I have told her I love her… It’s just…” He wasn’t entirely sure if he should tell Sina about this, but he realized that if he didn’t tell her, he’d never get a better insight. “She won’t kiss me…” He was a little ashamed to admit it.

Sina had a worried frown on her face.

“She told me, a week ago, that it’s not me, but her. But… what does that even mean? Is there anything I can do to help her?”

As Maui waited for Sina’s reply, she sighed sadly.

“You need to talk to her about this, not to me… I know she’s not being completely honest with you on some things from her past, but I don’t want to spill those secrets out to you. She would not forgive me, or you for that matter.”

These words were alarming to him, and he gulped nervously.

“Is she engaged?” he suddenly asked, and at this Sina startled.

“What? No, no, it’s nothing like that. There’s no commitment that’s holding her back.”

Maui was quiet as he considered that.

“Then I must be the problem in some way,” he sighed sadly, looking at his hands. “I’m too big perhaps – or perhaps it’s the fact that I won’t grow old. I don’t know. Maybe I’m just ugly to her and she wants someone more human. I wish I knew if I should give up completely or not.”

Sina could not reply to those thoughts of doubt, even though she hated to see Maui so consumed by them.

“I’m sorry, Maui,” she offered compassionately. “But only Moana can reply to those questions. But I do believe what she says – that to her, the problem is within herself, and not within you. And if she has told you she loves you, then I think she means this in the best ways possible. Do not doubt yourself so much. Just talk with her.”

He grunted softly. “Each time I try to talk with her about this, she just says that it’s not me but her, and then we hug and that’s it. I thought maybe you could give me more insight, but I feel even more confused and clueless now.”

He rubbed his hands through his face, as though he was trying to wake up from a bad dream.

Sina hesitated. “I think… she does not think she’s worthy of you,” she admitted softly, wishing almost immediately after she’d said it that she hadn’t, for Maui seemed to realize that she knew more after all.

“How can she not be worthy?” he wondered in desperation. “She is the most worthy person on this entire island – she is a hero – she was chosen by the ocean to restore the heart of Te Fiti – she is practically a princess – she is without a lover and untouched – she is brave and kind and beautiful… How can someone so perfect think they’re not worthy?!”

He desperately hoped Sina would reply, but she just locked her lips together and shook her head.

“Ask her,” she urged Maui. “It is too private. If I told you…” She hesitated, then suddenly got up. “No, you should go… I have said too much. This is between you and her. But please… If you take one thing away from this conversation: do not blame yourself over this. She has her reasons.”

Maui got up, not wishing to overstay his welcome, but he was confused still as Sina shooed him out the door.

Deciding he needed to give this all some thought, he went to the beach instead, and as he stood by the ocean, he muttered: “You wouldn’t happen to know what’s wrong with Moana, do you?”

The ocean remained quiet, and he figured that was what he had expected.

“Yeah, me neither…” He let out a deep sigh as he let the waves crash over his feet, and startled several minutes later when he heard Affi’s voice behind him.

“Maui! Hey Maui! Do you want to practice dancing? The Makahiki festival is in a few days and we haven’t practiced in a few days!”

As the boy approached him and noticed the demigod’s grave expression, he slowed down though.

“Are you okay? You look troubled.”

He considered for a small moment if it was wise to tell Affi, but then he realized that the kid had more experience with women than he had. He had seen Affi by plenty a girl’s side in the short time he had spent on New Motunui, and it was clear that he had a greater understanding of the human mind and heart than he did.

“I am troubled,” he admitted after a few moments of silence. “I love Moana, and she loves me, and yet we’re not together and I can’t figure out why.”

Admitting he loved Moana was easier this time, and he was glad for it.

Affi honestly hadn’t expected that much honesty in so short amount of time, and was too baffled to reply right away.

“Sina says that Moana has her own reasons, but I have no idea what that means.” He turned to Affi. “Do you know?”

Affi’s eyes were wide and his lips were locked, and he hardly dared to move at all, and at this, Maui’s jaw dropped.

“You _do_ know!” Maui said loudly, pointing his finger at Affi, seeming a little outraged. “How come you know? Does everyone know?”

As Affi remained quiet and looked like he wanted to run away, Maui felt a little betrayed.

“Everyone knows, apparently.” Maui grunted in frustration. “What on earth is going on then? What happened that no one is telling me?”

Affi just shook his head. “Maui, I can’t tell you,” he said softly. “It is not something I should spill. But if I were Moana… If I loved someone… I think I would keep it from you too…” He thought over his words for a few moments before he continued: “But it’s been hard on her… And I think she is afraid of your rejection once you find out. I think… If it were me, I would rather have you reject me for not knowing, than reject me for knowing.”

He still didn’t understand, and Affi sighed as he realized this. “Look… I can leave you alone if you want. Or we can do some dancing in preparation for the Makahiki festival.”

Maui crossed his arms defensively. “I won’t be dancing,” he muttered angrily. “I won’t be seducing anyone – and if Moana does not want me, then there’s no point in dancing. I’m not going to make a fool out of myself.”

Affi raised his hands as a means to surrender. “I’m not going to disagree with you… Your mind is set on Moana, and I respect that. To be honest, I don’t think she’d want you to dance for her… And she has never danced for anyone – I doubt this year will be different, even if she loves you more than anyone… As long as she doesn’t think she’s worthy of you, she won’t try anything. In my opinion, you would to better to just talk to her.”

Maui nodded, not angry with Affi or Sina for not telling him what exactly was wrong with Moana, but frustrated still. He would wait and see. Perhaps there was still a way he could get Moana to open up to him about her secret.


	21. Racing Together

Even if he had wanted to talk to Moana, time had not allowed it. The Makahiki Festival took up a lot of her attention, and with the rain season about to begin, everything needed to be harvested in time, and he helped the farmers from dawn until dusk – hardly able to spend more than some dinnertime with Moana in the meanwhile.

Maui had no idea what to expect of this particular festival, but it seemed like it was a time of ritual, and on the actual day of the festival, no one was allowed to work.

A big stone altar had been set down in the middle of the village, and people offered bits of the harvest to the gods.

Maui wasn’t sure if it was appropriate for him to say anything about it, but from his own experience with gods, he knew that they cared less about mortals than mortals often liked to believe. Not a single god was going to mind if these people offered anything to them or not, but as he saw how holy this practice was to the villagers, he decided to respect their beliefs, and even offered some taro roots that he had harvested himself, even if he had not planted them himself.

When Maui had heard Affi talk about the Makahiki festival, he had assumed it had been all about finding a partner for the youngest people on the island - but to his surprise, it was so much more than that. In the late morning, there were wrestling matches, and though he did not compete (he probably would have killed his opponents with his brute strength), he joyfully watched the sparring matches, cheering and rooting eagerly for the best wrestlers. 

The youngest children did a race in the early afternoon, and Maui was granted the honor of presenting the lei to the winner, a boy who was so happy that he hugged Maui for what had to be three full minutes, and even then the parents still had to come to drag the kid away so that the demigod could enjoy his privacy again.

Moana enjoyed watching him in those moments. He was clapping and cheering her people on and his enthusiasm was catchy. She had always enjoyed watching the wrestling matches, and the children’s races, but not as much as she did now. 

A few hours before dusk, after they had all eaten together in the center of the village, there was a sailing competition, and as Maui saw the men that were preparing their boats, he desperately wanted to compete as well. 

"Moana!" He hurried to her side, looking as eager as ever. "Shall we enter the competition too? Your boat is still around here somewhere, isn't it?"

At those words, her eyes lit up, and she grinned widely. 

"It's not a custom for me to compete..." she admitted. “After all, I am the master wayfinder around here... I have an unfair advantage. As do you."

"Ah come on!" Maui urged her. "So what if you win first prize, you could always argue that it's fair because you carry a lot more weight than the rest, especially with me on board!"

She chuckled. "And you won't cheat by commanding the wind?"

He put his hand on his heart. "I swear!"

She pointed in the direction of her boat. "Why don't you set us up then?"

He was off in a second, running as fast as he could, and he lifted the boat as though it weighed nothing before he rushed towards the water with a spring in his step, and simultaneously a lot of heads of the other competitors turned towards him, their expressions slightly worried. 

As they turned back towards Moana, she knew that they were a bit confused, and in a sweet and careful voice, she asked them: "Can we compete too? Maui seems to be really into it..."

Some men hesitated, but as they turned to watch Maui and saw how he was humming as he was fixing the sail and tightening the ropes, they grinned. Maui had seldom been in a better mood, and who were they to deny him some fun?

"Of course," Maleko said, the tall man who had already won the wrestling match earlier that day. "He has cheered us on all day. Let people cheer him on as well. It would be our honor to compete against him – and against you, Moana!"

She chuckled, glad that the villagers did not protest at all.

Maui was still humming to himself when he heard Affi’s voice behind him.

“Hey Maui! Can I be your person of reference?”

Maui frowned, not sure what Affi was on about. “My what?”

“Person of reference. Every team picks a person who will sit where the canoe is now. Then when the game begins, everyone gets their canoes in the water at the same time. First one to sail around the island and return, wins. But to know where you were before, and make sure you have sailed one complete loop, you need a person of reference – like me!”

As Moana approached them too, her trusted paddle in hand, she smiled gratefully.

“That would be great, Affi, thank you!”

While she double-checked whether her canoe was fit for sailing, Affi waited patiently, watching the other teams as they prepared as well.

“You gotta watch out for Maleko,” Affi warned Maui. “He’s a true sportsman. He has won the past five years.”

“We can take him,” Moana said confidently, tying her hair up in a bun with a smug grin on her face, and Maui soon matched hers.

“Yeah, Affi. This should be a piece of cake. We’ve done this before, don’t fuss about it.”

As all the boats were pulled into place, Moana explained the rules as quickly as she could to Maui, who followed her lead and put his hair up in a bun as well.

To Moana’s approval it seemed like even mini-Maui and mini-Moana were preparing themselves aboard their tiny little boat.

“Once they blow the shell, we pull the canoe into the sea and head to the right as soon as we’re clear of the sandbanks… Then, we sail around the island. First to pull the canoe back to their person of reference, wins the race.”

“Easy,” Maui said with a grin.

Moana shook her head. “We have to be careful. To the north of the island are some very dangerous rock formations in the water. Crash against one of those, and your trip is over – if not your life.”

“I can’t die from that,” he said smugly, but Moana simply raised her eyebrow.

“I can. So be careful when I tell you to be.”

He gulped, realizing that he would not jeopardize her life for anything.

“Of course,” he said softly. “I will listen to your commands. You’re in charge.”

It quite moved her to hear him say that, and she was smiling awkwardly when the shell was suddenly blown, and they had been the only two who hadn’t been paying attention at all.

While the other teams started tugging their canoes into the water, Maui and Moana were still reaching for the ropes, but thanks to Maui’s super-strength, they were in the water well before the others, and as he adjusted the sails, Moana steered using her trusted paddle.

“We’re first!” he said excitedly after a minute, and she chuckled.

“Of course. But let’s focus and stay first. We are reaching the north-west side of the island soon. Currents are dangerous there and we’ll need to make a rather sharp turn in order to save time.”

“No worries, princess. Sharp turns are my specialty.”

She rolled her eyes as he called her princess. “And mine, I can proudly say. But I don’t know if I can do it with you aboard as well. It’s a difficult act of balancing when one is alone – leave alone when we are together.”

“If our timing is right, and we do the moves together, we should be alright – don’t you think?”

Moana wasn’t sure. “We can try. After all, I just copied my moves from yours. They should be the same.”

“Only one way to find out…” Maui said with a big grin.

As they approached the north-west side, there was a small rock peninsula that was stretching the island in a rather unnecessary way, but they’d need to go around it, and Moana pointed out the exact spot where they needed to do their sharp turn.

“You got the sail covered?” she asked him.

“You the paddle?”

As they smiled at one another for a brief moment, they soon focused their attention on the water again, counting down together.

“Three... two… one… CHEEHOO!”

As Maui loosened the sail, Moana pulled her paddle out of the water, and the next moment, Maui made a massive jump towards Moana, landing right besides her and pulling two of the ropes to make a very sharp turn.

The moment he landed, however, the canoe moved in such an unexpected way that Moana lost her balance, and she would have fallen into the water had it not been for Maui, who saw what was happening just in time to grab her around the waist.

“I got ya, curly.”

She chuckled as he held her against him while he was also still pulling the ropes, turning the canoe so it was perfectly on course for the second part of the race.

While Moana regained her footing and put the paddle in the water again, Maui returned to the sails, kneeling down so they could catch all the wind they needed.

As he looked behind them, he saw that there was only one canoe near them. As the two men aboard did a perfect turn as well, Maui was impressed.

“Maleko is quite good,” he admitted.

“Hey,” Moana reprimanded him. “Focus on our own canoe first.”

She winked at him, not completely serious, but he obeyed her none the less, chuckling to himself.

After gazing out over the water for a while, noticing how Moana was avoiding the rocky part, he smiled and softly said: “We make a good team, don’t we?”

As he turned back to look at her, he saw she was smiling.

“We do,” she agreed immediately.

As he looked at her, she noticed there was something on his mind, and she had an inkling of what it was. Turning her gaze away from his, he wasn’t willing to let it pass this time though, and there was nowhere for her to go as he asked: “But you won’t tell me your secret?”

She frowned, not looking at him. “No. It’s not your business. Let’s focus on this race.”

“I don’t care about this race as much as I care about you,” he replied sharply. “If I can help you in any way, you need to let me know.”

“There is no way in which you can help me,” she assured him. “And there is no need to help me either. I’m fine. We’re fine. Now help me win this race.”

Though she was trying to get him to focus on the race, it wasn’t working at all, and he was distracted still. He didn’t even realize it, but Maleko was gaining on them. 

As the canoe past them on their left, Maui wasn't even aware of it, and Moana scolded him: "Maui, focus! Adjust the sail!"

Annoyed that he was still clueless about her issues, he pulled several ropes, until their sail caught a good amount of wind again and they were able to match their speed to their competitors. He had promised her that he'd listen to her - that she was in charge - and he would do what she told him to, even if he didn't agree at all.

Several times she ordered him around, and he listened each time, but he wasn't smiling, and he wasn't enjoying the race either. 

By the time they were at the west side of the island again, close to the beach where Affi was waiting for them, they were well ahead of Maleko once more. 

"Alright, great!" Moana shouted, trying not to show how much she hated his cold attitude now that he had stopped responding to her commands with more than the action she demanded of him. "Now let's pull this canoe ashore!"

As they both jumped into the water and grabbed some rope, Maui didn't even wait for Moana before he pulled the boat to Affi, and Moana felt like an idiot, the way she couldn't even contribute because he was stubbornly pulling the boat through the sand as fast as he could, and she couldn't keep up with him. 

The people were cheering, and Affi was the loudest of all when Moana and Maui put the ropes of the canoe in his hands, but neither of them was smiling.

Maui looked angry, and Moana was close to tears.

Tui hadn't even noticed it as he approached them enthusiastically. "That was incredible! I've never seen anyone come in with such insane speeds!"

Sina was carrying two leis for the victors, but as she walked over to them, Maui already had his mind made up and stepped away, rushing into the jungle without looking at anyone, not wanting to say another word for now, because he knew all words he'd speak now would be too mean to ever forget. 

Moana didn't dare call after him. It would be even more humiliating than this entire situation already was, and as she saw her mother's questioning gaze, she muttered bitterly: "Just give the leis to Maleko. I forfeit."

"But you won!" Affi tried to convince her. "The two of you were faster than any of the others, and you played fair and square from beginning to end!"

By now, Maleko and his teammate had arrived as well, and he was confused to see that Maui was no longer around, and that Moana was close to tears.

"It. Doesn't. Matter!" Moana said with venom in her voice. "Nothing here matters. Give the price to someone who can tell their children and grandchildren when they get old. But what I do, doesn't matter. In a hundred years, no one will remember."

"Moana," Affi said compassionately, and those villagers that were witnessing the conversation had compassionate expressions on their faces, though some of them looked startled and shocked as well. "What you do, does matter to us... You will be our leader one day, and we look forward to following you when you are. You've already changed so much about all of us - introduced us to wayfinding again - and we've all become better people because of it! Your legacy will not be forgotten."

"Moana, we love you so much," Sina said with tears in her eyes. "We all do. We always have, always will. But you have to stop shutting people out because you think your life is already over..."

"Oh?! I think my life is already over?!" Moana replied harshly. "Don't you ever wonder where I got that idea from? I'm the one you guys forbade to ever wear red again, even though it has always been the color of the chiefs! I'm the one you guys forbade to participate in the Makahiki dances after my accident! And now I'm the one who's pushing Maui away because I'm afraid he will treat me like an inhuman once he learns the truth, just like you have done for the past ten years!"

People were shocked and some of them were averting their eyes, but a few others had tears in their eyes as they looked to their future chief.

"That's enough," Tui said quietly, but with determination in his voice, putting his hand on Moana's shoulder as he tried to lead her away, but she slapped his hand away in anger.

"It's not enough to me," she hissed angrily. 

Upon seeing her daughter behave this way, Sina suddenly stepped up, her gaze stricter than it had ever been as she said: "That's enough, Moana. You can't keep on blaming the island and the people here for your self-inflicted misery!"

She gasped in outrage. "I did not inflict this upon myself!"

"But you  _are_  the one inflicting your current state of misery onto yourself!" Sina argued just as passionately. "You should be enjoying your life! You have Maui now! We aren't the ones chasing him away each time, you do that completely by yourself! Why do you keep on deciding for him that he can't handle the truth? Why do you think he wouldn't accept you?"

She had tears in her eyes as she replied in a broken voice: "Because _I_ wouldn't if I were him."

She just wanted to run, and as she took the ropes from Affi's hands again, she started pulling her canoe back into the water, struggling because it was a heavy task, and no one would help her. No one wanted to give her the idea they wanted her to leave - but no one wanted to stand in her way either. She didn't look back as she sailed away, even if there were tears in her eyes. 

It didn't take too long for her to realize that she had left without food - or that the rain season would begin in a few days. But she needed some time to think - some time to convince herself that she was right - even when everyone else seemed to disagree with her. Perhaps a night away would do the trick. Attending the Makahiki festival only ever managed to annoy her anyways. 


	22. The Betrayers

The moment Moana's canoe disappeared on the horizon, Affi ran away from the crowd that had been watching the scene on the beach.

He didn't run through the center of the village, afraid other people would realize what he was doing, but through the jungle, to the very back of the village, where he entered Maui's banana tree garden. He didn't even knock as he entered the hut through Maui's backdoor, and was relieved to see that the demigod was there, sitting near the unlit fire pit, sharpening sticks into spears with a knife. 

"I don't wanna talk," Maui muttered angrily, still upset that no matter what he had tried, he hadn't been able to get Moana's secret out of her. He certainly didn’t need anyone to rub in how horribly he had failed.

"You only need to listen," Affi replied stubbornly, moving to sit opposite him with a grave expression on his young face. “But you must promise me that you won't ever tell Moana I told you this."

At those words, Maui's anger disappeared almost instantly. Was Affi finally willing to share Moana's secret with him? Did this mean that he could stop worrying about it?

"She will kill me if she finds out I told you," Affi continued desperately. "And whatever you do – please pretend you don't know this. Don't let her know that you know. You have to promise me this."

He didn't need to think two times about that.

"I promise!" he said a little too eagerly, tossing his latest spear to the side and planting his knife in the floor.

"And don't tell any of the other villagers - you must promise to tell no one I ever came here to tell you this!"

"I promise!" Maui repeated, even more impatient than the first time. 

"And you must promise to never again mention this, not even to me!"

"Affi!" Maui let out in a frustrated tone. "Just tell me what her secret is!"

Affi took a deep breath and frowned, apparently still hesitating to just blurt it all out, and he slowed down a little as he said: "The reason I'm telling you this is because I now truly believe she won't ever tell you this. I wanted to give her a chance to tell you herself, but I don’t see it happening now, to be honest… Her mind is convinced that the moment she tells you, you will no longer look at her the same way - perhaps she's afraid you'll even exclude her completely. And I know that's drastic and I think... I hope... that you won't exclude her the moment I tell you."

"I'll never exclude her!" Maui said, outraged by the idea alone, but he added in a slightly worried tone: "Why would I exclude her?"

As the backdoor opened again, Affi looked like he had been caught in a crime, and as he saw that it were Tui and Sina who entered, he immediately got up again, his cheeks burning up as he feared he was in for a scolding now.

Maui felt his hope crush the moment he saw Moana's parents standing there. He was never going to hear it now, he thought, until he heard Sina continue with a regretful voice: "Because we have excluded her, all her life, from our own village life. We’ve alienated her from the rest of us by forcing her to prepare for the life of a chief – forbidding her to participate in certain things of community life that were very natural to the rest of us – and we've only excluded her worse after her accident. And Affi's right. She's not going to snap out of this on her own. We have allowed her to ingrain this into her identity, and now we don't know how to undo it."

Affi looked confused as Tui and Sina approached the fire pit and sat down as well, and upon seeing Sina's encouraging smile, he allowed himself to kneel once more, wondering just how much the two of them had heard, but he assumed they had overheard a great deal.

"We agree with Affi," Tui said in a grave tone, though he didn’t dare to look at Maui, the shame within him too deep to look the demigod in the eye. "Moana will not forgive any of us for telling you this, so you must protect us too and never tell her this conversation happened."

"Of course..." Maui said softly, though he was beginning to doubt if it was wise to promise this. Just what was it precisely he wasn't allowed to ever tell Moana? The fact that everyone around him seemed so serious and sad already made him fear what was to follow.

"Things got out of hand after you left the race just now..." Sina explained. "Moana voiced some things that were a reason of concern to us... Then she left..."

Maui looked terrified at that confession, but Sina immediately put her hand on his.

"She'll be fine... And you can look for her when we're done here. But first you have to understand why she went away."

Tui could see the confusion and worry on Maui's face, and deciding that the demigod had suffered quite enough by keeping him in the dark, he asked: "Do you know about Moana's accident?"

"With the Kakamora?" he asked immediately, realizing once he asked it that he should have realized that her secrets revolved around that.

He remembered now the first time he had noticed her scar on her stomach - how she had been awkward to talk about it, and how she had averted her gaze... Not to mention how the ocean had taken out its frustration on him, pointing towards it... Of course the ocean had known more too… And Moana had admitted that she had not looked for him that year - that she had been too injured - and that she had received her blue dress then, something which she had never seemed to be particularly proud of, even though he had thought the color blue suited her, and the qualities attributed to it were lovely.

"Do you know where she got injured?" Affi asked carefully, wondering if Moana had ever told him that, or if he didn't have a good enough grasp of female anatomy in that regards.

"In her stomach," he replied quietly, his shoulders slouching a bit as he was starting to have an inkling where this was headed. "But..." His voice was careful now, soft, even. "...she said – immediately – that no vital organs were injured."

"I don't think that's a lie..." Affi affirmed gently. 

"It wasn't vital to her survival... But it would have been vital to her future children," Sina added with tears in her eyes, and as Tui put his hand on her shoulder, she immediately grabbed hold of it. 

Maui beheld the scene with agony in his heart. 

So Moana could not have children. 

And Sina and Tui would never have grandchildren either. And their line would cease with Moana, and he understood now how this could be so bothersome to mortals, whose lives were so short but who always tried to pass on as much of themselves to their children as was possible, to ensure they'd somehow live forever, in one way or another. 

He didn't even realize that tears were streaming down his cheeks as he asked: "Why does she think that makes a difference to me?" he asked them fiercely, and Sina teared up even more at those words - but only because his words relieved her of one of her greatest fears. 

"The plan always was to make you a big house," Affi said as he looked around, and Maui's gaze followed his across the room. "Not just for you, but for your wife and children. I think... before her accident... she dreamed of being that wife. Then afterwards... she probably decided you'd need to pick someone else, someone that could give you a family, so that you'd never need to be alone in this house, even after she'd be gone."

Maui furiously wiped his tears from his face. "I don't need children to be happy," he insisted stubbornly. "I need her, but I can't have her when she keeps on thinking she isn't worthy of me."

Tui was staring at Maui with wide eyes, hardly believing the sincerity in the demigod’s voice. He had expected many things from him, but not this unwavering affection towards Moana.

"Then make her believe otherwise?" Tui asked softly, hopefully even. "Don't let her know you know, but if you truly feel like she can be a part of her life, even after all of this, then please, don't give up on her even when it seems she has given up on you... She believes she isn't worthy of love because of her accident, and her words of earlier made us realize we put those thoughts in her head in the first place."

"We were trying to do right," Sina said softly. "I made her that blue dress because red is also a color of passion and fertility, and I feared the red would be a reminder of what she had lost. But now I realize that by making her that blue dress she was reminded of how different she was even more. I basically rubbed it in her face that she had changed because of her accident, that she was the only one in our community who had gone through this, instead of treating her like the same old Moana."

Maui got up from the floor, his hand wrapped tightly around his fish hook. "I'll get her back," he said in a determined voice. "When do the festivities begin?"

"Sundown," Affi replied, a little distracted by that last question. "You are going to bring her to the festivities?"

He didn't seem convinced that was a wise thing to do, but Maui had a determined look on his face.

With a self-certain grin, he added: "Better yet. I am going to dance for her."


	23. The Makahiki Festival

As Moana sat on her canoe, she wasn't even sailing. She wasn't going anywhere, and her canoe was floating aimlessly on the sea, just as she moved aimlessly through life, or at least that was what it had felt like since she had found Maui. 

Before she had found him, she had felt like she had had a noble goal in her life: to bring the demigod to New Motunui – to give him a home.

Well, she had succeeded, and though she was proud of that – and proud of him for coming with her – she wasn't that much happier with herself. In fact, her sadness had only increased in the days he had spent with her. He reminded her more than anyone of what she could never have – of the family she had wanted to give him.

She thought that it wasn't fair on him, that he had fallen in love with her. He deserved to love someone else - someone with a future - but telling him the truth would have been too painful. 

She was so self-absorbed that she didn't even look up to the sky, and when a heavy weight suddenly landed on her canoe and caused it to rock, she startled, and she felt her heart beat anxiously when she saw it was Maui, landing on her boat with a small but careful grin as he let his fish hook rest on his shoulder.

"Hey princess," he greeted her casually. "Heard you went sailing without me. Have to say - feeling a little insulted here."

She wasn't sure what to make of his words, but she couldn't help but feel a little guilty. He wasn’t upset anymore – and she couldn’t be upset with him either then.

"I... I didn't think you'd want to sail with me... after... after that race. I... I wasn't very kind to you."

"And I wasn't very kind to you, ignoring you like I did just because I didn't get my way," he said warmly. "Doesn't mean I can't be kind now."

He sat down beside her. "Can I do anything to earn your forgiveness?"

His sweet words were like a balm to her aching heart, and she could not help but smile.

"You have nothing to be forgiven for," she told him softly. "I'm the one who's been treating you badly. I'm sorry."

He put his arm around her shoulder, holding her close, and was relieved that she didn’t move away. "Don't be," he said warmly. "When you want to tell me, you can tell me. But until that day comes, I will be here for you."

He had hoped those words would bring her comfort. He had not expected those words would break her down like they did, and she cried passionately, her shoulders shaking as she did not believe herself to be deserving of such a friend.

He gulped nervously now, not wanting her to be in any pain at all - but he didn't really know how to calm her down with words. But perhaps words wouldn’t be needed at all.

In an instinct, he pulled her onto his lap and held her close, hoping that it brought her some comfort, and he was glad to realize she wasn't pulling away from him at all, but instead curled herself up against his stomach and chest, not minding his strong arms around her. 

The sun was slowly setting, and as he gazed out over the ocean, he realized that the Makahiki festival would begin at any moment. He honestly didn't want to miss it. He desperately wanted to dance for her. 

"Come on, Moana," he tried to encourage her. "It is going to be a beautiful evening... There will be time for crying tomorrow, if you are still eager to cry your eyes out then."

She chuckled at those words, and he was glad that his terrible sense of humor wasn't wasted on her. 

As he placed a kiss on the top of her head, he gently put her to the side again. 

"Let's go back to the island, alright? I wanna see the dancers."

Those words stung her a little bit. She wouldn't be one of the dancers, and that thought hurt her.

But at the same time, she would not want to stand in his way either. She needed to get over herself and her self-pity, and she needed to learn to be the bigger person who would watch Maui find his future on New Motunui without her crying over it all the time.

So what if she would not have the life she wanted with him? They could be friends. They could still love each other in other ways. She just needed to learn to be content with that.

She had to be brave for this, and so she nodded calmly.

"Of course," she said, raising her head elegantly. "I would hate to be the reason you'd miss this festival."

He was surprised by her quiet resolve in this, and as they sailed back, he was glad that she hadn’t gone that far from the island at all. They were back in about half an hour, and as they heard drums in the distance, they realized the celebration had already begun.

He took her by the hand as he led her to the village center, his grip a little tighter than he realized, but part of him was terrified of her leaving him now. He wanted to dance for her, and he could do no such thing if she ran off before the festivities had truly began.

They entered the village as one song had just come to an end, and as Sina saw them, she waved happily, encouraging them to sit with her and Tui.

It seemed that they had a good spot watching all the dancers, not too far from the musicians, and though Moana did not look at her parents yet, ashamed of her own behavior of before and not sure how to voice her apologies, Maui led her straight to them.

“So glad you’re back in time for the festival,” Sina said warmly, and Moana found it a little suspicious that she didn’t say more, but she didn’t think much more of it as another song began, and as Maui turned around and saw a group of men ready to perform, he wondered if he should join them.

But at the same time, he had no idea what they were going to dance, and they seemed to have the same leaf skirts and matching leis – and he figured that this was something these men had choreographed long before he had been around, and so he just sat down besides Moana.

As he beheld the dancing men, he came to realize how strange these dances were – unlike any he had ever seen before – and he knew that it had to be awkward to Moana too – part of him even felt awkward about it himself.

The smooth pelvis movements of these men left nothing at all to the imagination, and as Maui looked around, he noticed that a few girls were sitting together, giggling and feeling rather giddy as they whispered things to another about the dancers, and as he looked at the men, he saw that some of them were already flirting with the spectators, winking and blowing kisses at the women of their affections.

Yup. This wasn’t what he had imagined the festival to be.

When he had pronounced proudly that he would dance for Moana, he had not meant that he would dance like  _that_.

As the men were now demonstrating more incredible pelvis movements as they were balancing on one hand and one foot on the ground, he wondered if this was what Moana was actually waiting for, but as he tried to look at her from the corner of his eye – afraid of catching her gaze if he looked at her too directly, he realized that she wasn’t even paying attention.

She was pulling at the grass, not looking at these men, and he felt his heart ache for her as he realized how upset she seemed even by being present there.

What was even going through her mind right now? Did she even feel attraction to those men? Or did she hate them for rubbing it in her face how they were fertile, looking for love and families, and she was not?

The next dance was performed by the ladies, and as Maui looked at them, he gulped again. They were shaking their skirts in an incredibly fast-paced rhythm, and the sound of the hundreds of ti leafs of their skirts moving was incredibly mesmerizing.

None of the women were looking at him, which he was grateful for, because he would not have liked Moana to get the idea she would need to compete for him in any way. He knew that she simply wouldn’t have, not after what he had learned that day. As he carefully looked into her direction, he caught her gaze, and realized she’d been looking at him.

Though he was slightly terrified of everything that was going on around him, he smiled warmly at her, and she seemed a little alarmed by that, looking away again.

It seemed like the formal dances were slowly coming to an end, and in one of the mixed dances, Maui had great fun watching Affi as he danced around a foursome of girls, two of which were taller than him, and they were giggling and amused by the boy’s moves as he flirted with all of them simultaneously.

Maui chuckled, and as he turned to Moana, he wondered: “Does it really work? The way he tries to charm all of them at once?”

For one of the first times that evening, she smiled. “With Affi? Yeah… I think it does. Everyone knows he’s not particularly picky, and he’s got a good reputation among the ladies. He makes them smile. I suppose that’s most important to many of them.”

She sighed softly, and he picked up on it.

“Would you… would you like to go and dance?” he asked carefully, so quietly that no one else could overhear it by accident, and she looked a little alarmed.

“Me? No, I eh…” She gulped nervously. “I’m not meant to dance. You know, being next chief and such things.”

“Oh…” He felt a pang of disappointment. He knew there was more to it than that – that it wasn’t just because she was the next chief, but because of her accident and all of its consequences. She wasn’t telling him that though.

“You can go and dance, if you want to,” she encouraged him softly, but he immediately shook his head.

“No, no,” he said straight away. “I don’t want to give these ladies any ideas…” He only wanted to dance for Moana, not for anyone else, but did not voice that directly. “And unlike Affi or many men I see around here, I’m not particularly confident when it comes to charming ladies with dances like these. I love dancing though – and I love bragging about my greatest adventures – but trying to woo a woman by dancing like those guys? Not my thing. I’ve got my own style, and I don’t think it matches. I think I’ll just sit with you.”

Moana had a small smile on her face. Part of her was glad to hear it, if only because it meant she would have him to herself for a little while longer. There would not be a reason for heartache tonight, and she was grateful for it.

As the festival went on, Maui even witnessed how Sina and Tui danced later that evening, and he was watching them with a smile on his face. The dance was a little slower than most of the others, and Sina was very elegant – and he had nothing bad to say about Tui’s dancing either.

Being quite mesmerized by their dancing, he didn't even notice how Moana disappeared from his side, and when he heard Affi's voice come from the spot where Moana had sat a minute before, he jumped a little.

"What's holding you back?" Affi whispered, keeping his voice down as he sat next to Maui and casually ate from a bowl of roasted coconut, offering some to him, but he immediately declined.

"Those dances are not my type of dances," he replied quietly. "And I even asked her if she wanted to dance, but she didn't want to."

As they both looked around, they realized Moana was nowhere to be seen.

"Where did she go?" Maui muttered, hoping she hadn't left for the evening without telling him goodbye.

"If she's gone to think, there's only one place she'd go," Affi said mysteriously, and as Maui still looked pretty clueless, he added with a smile: "The ocean of course... Whenever she wants to be alone, you'll find her on the beach. I saw her head that way."

Maui didn't wait for more information than that. He got up straight away and Affi joined him, walking with him in the direction of the beach, ignoring the half a dozen girls that were giggling and flirting with him as he walked by.

Even if he had known Affi for a few weeks now, the amount of attention that the kid managed to gather was astounding. Some of the women flirting with him were twice his age, yet they all simultaneously seemed to adore him. 

"Affi... How... how come half the island likes you so much?"

"The female half?" Affi replied with a massive smile. "Not as hard as you might think. First you grab their eye. Not hard when you’ve got hair like mine and my dancing moves.” He was bragging, and Maui chuckled. “Then, you need to listen a lot. Truly listen - and understand - and show that understanding and an extraordinary amount of compassion… And when you're alone with them, make them feel like they’re the only woman you've ever been alone with. It's as easy as that. And it does help if you're good at pleasing them. But that's a skill that can only be perfected with lots of practice."

Maui was blushing. He and Affi handled women quite differently. 

Or, more correctly: Affi handled women. Maui? Didn’t. Never had. And with the way Moana was making it difficult for him, he wondered if he ever would.

"Do you enjoy that?" Maui wondered, quickly adding: "Having so many women to love and lay with? I mean... don't you grow tired of it? Doesn’t it feel like there are too many? And doesn't one of them spark your interest more than another?"

Affi grinned. "All the women I lay with have turned my head at one point or another. I have felt attraction to all of them for some reason... I enjoy exploring our relationships - even if it are so many at the same time. To some, I am just one fling among many. To others, I am the only one who understands their needs. Either way, I cherish our time together, regardless of who it’s with. And besides, they wouldn't want me as their significant other."

At this, Maui was surprised. What had he missed? 

"How come?"

Affi shrugged. "I'm not husband material. Too small, too young, too flirty, too many girlfriends, village goofball... Doesn't provide a lot of security. But I don't mind. And as long as they don't... I'll enjoy getting to know all those that are willing to get to know me."

Maui shook his head. It was hard to imagine that some brains worked that way. He had never felt attraction like that - least of all to half a village. To him, women didn't really turn his head that much more often than men did. He had only ever looked at Moana in a different way, but that was only logical, he supposed. She had believed in him when no one else had - and she had become his best friend, his only friend. How could he not love her?

As they entered the small coconut tree grove between the village and the beach, Affi suddenly put his hand on Maui's arm, pointing towards the water.

With the music of the festival still playing in the background, he smiled gently as he saw Moana - not just standing by the water, but dancing along with the waves. For a moment he just watched her, enjoying the sight of her form illuminated by the moonlight and stars, but as he heard Affi lightly clear his throat, he reminded himself why he was there. 

As he got closer, he realized that she was amused by something in the water, and a few moments later he realized there were a few manta rays floating around her feet as she stood knee-high in the ocean, still elegant as she swayed to the rhythm of the music.

He had said he would dance for her, and the rhythm in the background was a familiar one. He could dance to this – and sing a haka for her. It wouldn’t be like the other men danced – but it would have to do. Perhaps it was only appropriate to dance differently. After all, he wasn’t like the other men.

She hadn’t even spotted him yet, her back to him as she moved along with the manta rays around her, but the moment she turned around in her own little dance, he let out a roar to begin his dance, the sound alone filling him up with courage and bravery.

Moana jumped and looked at him with wide eyes, her hand held to her heart as he had given her quite a fright.

As he improvised the lyrics in an ancient tongue, he was glad that Moana could not understand him while he begged the gods to guide him in his love for her – to bless them and to open her up to his loving heart – to grant her protection and happiness for as long as they were together.

Moana had been so startled and confused at first that she had just stared at him with an open mouth, looking at his dancing while she had stopped her own. He had stood on the wet sand, and she was still in the water, looking at him as he clapped and danced, puffing his chest and flexing his muscles while his eyes intensely gazed into hers.

She couldn’t understand him, had no idea what he was saying or why he was dancing right then and there, but she had the heartbreaking feeling that he was trying to win her over, and as she noticed how the ocean withdrew around her feet, so did the manta rays, and a path towards her was now cleared.

Maui moved closer to her, glad that even the ocean seemed to approve of this, and came to a full stop in front of her, at the same time that the drums in the distance did. The village was quiet again, and Maui could only hear the rolling of the waves and his own loud heartbeat in that moment.

“I know I didn’t dance like the other men in your village,” he explained softly. “And I know you don’t understand the old language… But I asked the gods to bless my love for you – our love – and to grant me courage as I ask you to be my wife.”

He was quiet then, his heartbeat faster than ever as he looked at her pained expression.

“Maui,” she said compassionately, trying not to cry. “You shouldn’t dance for me… I can’t be your wife.”

He knew that that wasn’t true, even if she believed that.

“You need not be anything more than who you already are, Moana,” he urged her gently. “It can be you and me together… I will help you with your village… We can live together and I’ll take care of you. I’ll love you – in any way you want me to.”

She cried, if only because his words were perfect to her. This future he painted her with his words was exactly what she wanted – but she felt like she could not accept it. She had feared he would talk of children, but he hadn’t – not yet at least. But he needed to know.

“You should look for someone else,” she cried sadly. “Maybe… if you had been a mortal man… It would have been different… But you’re not mortal. You’ve got thousands of years left to live, and you deserve a family. You deserve children, and I…” She closed her eyes, hoping it would make the words easier to say. “I can’t give you children. Because of the accident.”

He looked at her with sadness in his eyes. She was so depressed over this – was so hard on herself – and he wasn’t sure how to tell her that he didn’t care without sounding heartless.

“You should look for another wife,” she continued, not looking at him, but looking at his feet instead. “Someone who can give you children, so that, when she dies and you don’t age, at least you will always have family around you. I can’t stand the thought of leaving you alone in this world.”

“Moana…” he whispered, putting the palm of his hand against her cheek. “I feel exactly the same… I can’t stand the thought of leaving _you_ alone in this world.”

She looked into his eyes, hardly able to believe what she was hearing.

“You are the best woman I know,” he continued with a warm smile. “And even if you’re mortal, even if you think you’re flawed, I look up to you. I have learned so much from you – and I’ve learned to feel things I’ve never felt for anyone before. You should not sacrifice your own happiness for anyone, least of all mine. Please, let me love you. It’s all I want to do, and I hope you feel the same.”

She couldn’t stop her tears, but his words did reach her. They were honestly what she had needed to hear for a long while, since the moment she had learned of the consequences of her accident – but she had never allowed herself to hope for anything resembling this. Even in her most optimistic visions of the future, she had not seen the two of them together in a romantic way, only in her dreams, and she had told herself over and over again that those had always been foolish. But his words were allowing her to hope for a better future, and she realized that perhaps dreams were allowed to come true.

She wanted nothing more than to love him too, and as she smiled at him, he wiped the tears from her cheeks.

“May I…” He gulped nervously as he looked at her lips, his voice quivering a little. “May I kiss you?”

She felt her heart jump even more at the sound of those words, and the light finally reached her eyes again as she looked at him, smiling before she gave him one consenting nod.

He bent over so carefully and pressed his lips against her so lightly that she was afraid to move. They were hardly even touching – just their lips and his hands as they rested gently on her cheeks – and it wasn’t until she dared to move his lips over hers, that she realized how hungry she was for more.

But even if she felt this need to pull him even closer, she had never learned how to give into such a thing, and instead she pulled back, smiling awkwardly. It was a relief to see that he had an equally awkward expression on his face, though he was still looking at her lips, almost as though he was looking for the proper words to ask her for another kiss.

“Another?” she asked softly, taking a small step closer to him as she let her hand rest on his chest, and it was only then that she could feel how rapidly his heart was beating, and she knew that her own heart wasn’t beating any slower.

He nodded as he carefully wrapped his arms around her waist and leaned in again, and this time she was the one to touch his face, one hand gently pressed against his cheek as their lips moved over one another – each second feeling a hundred times longer, and they were a little out of breath when they broke apart again, hearts and minds racing at this new sensation.

As much as he loved her kisses, he was also painfully aware of how inexperienced he was. He had asked her to be his wife – and he assumed that she had just accepted this as well. But was he ready for more than hugs and kisses at this point? How quickly would they be expected to move in together? And wouldn’t he let her down and allow insecurities to rise if he slowed down their union?

Oh, he was terrified, but he reminded himself of what he had asked for in his haka – strength and bravery to unite them both in the best way possible. As he took a deep breath, he felt that strength within him, and deciding that he was Maui – and that he wasn’t scared of anything – he bent down a bit, wrapped his arms around her legs, and lifted her high, grinning at her while she tried to keep herself balanced in his arms, resting her hands against his shoulders as she looked down at him with a surprised grin.

“Moana of New Motunui…” he said formally. “I love you. Take me as your husband.”

She chuckled, hardly believing that any of this was true, but she knew that it was. She hadn’t ever felt so giddy or happy, and she nodded quickly.

“I love you too, Maui. But eh… You might need to ask my father for his approval too. Tradition and such.”

Maui wasn’t worried about that. It had seemed like Tui had already given him his blessing earlier that evening. Moana’s parents just wanted her to be happy, and he would make her as happy as he possibly could.

As he was still lifting her up, she let one hand go through his hair, and he leaned into her touch, smiling at her. He also noticed how she looked towards the village, and her mouth dropped a little, so suddenly that it startled Maui.

As he turned around, he noticed how Affi was not the only one on the beach anymore. Half the village had gathered in the coconut grove to watch them, and as everyone realized that they had been spotted, applause and joyful hollering could be heard from the beach as they all celebrated the fact that Moana, their future chief, was no longer alone.


	24. A Night Alone

Maybe she should have been upset by the fact that half the village had been spying on them, but she honestly could not hold it against them as she saw how elated and happy her people were that she and Maui were now together.

Putting her hand in his, she smiled at him before she pulled him with her towards her parents, who were standing by Affi’s side now, and it even seemed like Sina had tears of joy in her eyes.

Though Maui knew that he had Tui’s approval already, Moana did not know that. And he had promised to keep that meeting of before a secret, and so he would.

Moana was trembling from excitement as she halted in front of her parents, and Maui took a deep breath, feeling very proud that he had not just won Moana’s love, but also had managed to get her to open up to him at long last. Things could only get better from now on.

Raising his head bravely, he smiled at Moana’s parents as they stood before him.

“Chief Tui… Sina… May I ask for your approval in having your daughter Moana as my wife?”

Sina was over the moon and immediately hugged him, not even waiting for Tui’s response.

“Of course! Welcome to the family!”

As she squeezed her arms around him as tightly as she could, she made an overjoyed squealing sound, causing the others to chuckle in surprise.

“I am so proud to call you my son now,” she added affectionately.

Maui had not expected how much those words would hit him – but in a good way. He held Sina closely as they hugged, and as Tui cleared his throat, he quickly let go of Sina again.

Tui had a slightly more wary expression on his face.

“I expect you to take very good care of her,” the chief warned him. “This is my daughter, and she is the most precious being on this earth to me. If you hurt her in any way, I will make you regret the day you were born. Demigod or not.”

Maui was slightly impressed by those stern words, and looked at the chief with wide eyes, wondering if he was joking, but it appeared he was not.

“I won’t hurt her,” he quickly assured Tui. “I promise.”

As he held his hand on his heart, so did Tui, and the two men briefly bowed to one another, coming to the quiet agreement that they both only wanted what was best for Moana.

“Then I will trust you with her care from now on,” Tui said formally, and even Moana was a little surprised by what this meant.

With the approval of her parents, then that meant… She was now truly his – as he was hers.

The most unexpected implication of that was that she now lived with Maui – and that she had no further time to prepare for her first night with him – a night that had already started.

She was slightly alarmed by that realization, but she didn’t show it.

As the music in the village center picked up again and most of the people returned there, Tui and Sina bade them a good night – the latter adding a wink before she turned around and left, and Moana gulped because of it.

“So eh…” Maui wasn’t entirely sure what to do either. “Do you eh… Do you wanna go to the party or eh… home?”

Moana honestly didn’t know what to respond. Truthfully, she hadn’t had the time to think this through. But if she was going to have to sleep with him tonight, then she didn’t want it to be something fast and quick after they were already tired from attending the festival all night long. She wanted it to be a little slower – she’d probably need it to be slower – if she needed it at all – and she realized that she was trembling as she took his hand again.

“Let’s go home,” she said bravely, adding: “Besides, we’re not exactly the type to go and dance with the others… Might be more fun to spend some time alone.”

Maui was actually glad to hear it. He felt more at ease with Moana than he did with the rest of the village, especially when they were all flirting and swinging their pelvises in ways that left too little to the imagination. He would gladly retreat in his own house.

Luckily, the villagers left them alone on their way there. Those that saw them, just waved or bade them a good night, and Moana felt anxious as she saw how some of the girls giggled or winked at her. She knew what they were thinking, and she didn’t like it.

Once inside his massive house, she went straight to the fire pit, getting a fire going so they could at least see each other properly in the darkness.

As Maui watched how intent she was to get the fire burning, he smiled to himself. His beautiful Moana – finally his. Not even he had seen that coming.  

Looking at his chest, he put his hair to the side, just to see how Mini Maui and Moana were happily hugging it out. Chuckling to himself, he went to sit beside Moana, and he proudly showed her his tattoos.

“Look at these two,” he encouraged her. “Can’t remember them ever being happier than this.”

Moana turned her head slightly to gaze at them, and smiled as she saw how happy they were. She wanted to be just as happy, but for the moment she was a little anxious. Deciding that it was easier to conquer fears once they were voiced, she carefully asked: “Maui… Can we take it slow tonight?”

He was a little confused. “Take what slow?”

Moana was a little shocked that he didn’t seem to understand her, and the moment he saw her shocked reaction, was the moment he understood, and he looked at her with wide eyes.

“Oh!” He was blushing now, his hands folded awkwardly in his lap. “I’m eh… I hadn’t really considered that…”

Now Moana was confused. Frowning to herself, she suddenly turned to him again: “So eh… you weren’t thinking of having sex with me?”

He quickly and honestly shook his head, and this surprised Moana even more.

“Then what did you want to do?” she asked suspiciously.

“Just… talk… and kiss,” he admitted shyly. “And hug. And sleep. I mean… Isn’t that enough already? It’s only our first night together…”

Once again Moana was too stunned to say much, and she could not hide her confusion. Whatever she had expected, this wasn’t it, and she wasn’t sure what to feel about it. It was not in line with her expectations, but since her expectations had been a little terrifying, she figured it was a good thing.

He noticed her hesitation, and rubbed the back of his neck as he tried to figure out what to say.

“I’m not… sure… how to proceed,” he said softly, and Moana had to admit that she found his honesty and innocence endearing. She was beginning to smile again because of it.

Who would have thought Maui would be _this_ shy when it came to things like these? She was glad for it now. It meant they could take their time – together – without him being ahead of her at every turn. For once, they could be complete equals, and she had to confess that this situation was rather alluring.

With a big smile on her face, she crawled onto his lap and put her hands in his neck before she pressed a sweet kiss to his lips, and though he leaned in, he also seemed a little hesitant.

“What do you need me to do?” he asked her the moment she pulled her lips away from his again.

“What you said yourself,” she replied warmly. “Talk, kiss, hug, sleep. We can figure out the rest another night.”

His eyes lit up at those words, and he let out a relieved sigh.

“Really? Great!”

He wrapped his arms around her waist and pressed another short kiss to her lips, finding the sensation of her lips against his very addictive. Just the taste of her mouth was sweeter than he could have ever imagined it to be, but he was truly surprised when he felt her wet tongue tease his bottom lip. A little faster than he had intended, he pulled back before he could allow himself to get lost in the sensation - new, scary and exciting as it was.

Moana had noticed the way he had pulled back, and she smiled patiently at him, licking her own lips as she looked at him.

“Was that… was that weird?” she asked, some uncertainty in her voice.

He chuckled, amused. “No, not weird. Good. But new. And strange. To me, at least.”

“To me too,” she quickly admitted, before he could get the wrong idea. “Not sure how to go about… anything really…”

His heart beat painfully loud in his chest as he realized that he had the same problem. “Yeah ehm… Makes two of us.”

Moana chuckled, quite amused.

“Look at us,” she said warmly. “We’re the stuff of legends. Defeated sea monsters, fought Te Ka and taught an entire generation how to wayfind again. Yet we don’t even know how to kiss properly.”

Maui chuckled.

“To be honest, I thought you were doing alright,” he admitted warmly.

“You too, Maui!” she assured him with a grin, and as he laughed, so did she.

He pulled her close into a half-hug, half-honi now, feeling more loved than he ever had in a lifetime. To him, this seemed like enough – like so much more than enough.

“I love you,” he admitted softly, and he smiled as he felt her breath tickle his lips.

“I love you too, Maui. So much.”

He stroked the back of her head with his hand, and she allowed herself to close her eyes. He was so warm and careful with her, and she wanted nothing more but to stay wrapped in his arms forever.

Sighing softly, she admitted: “I thought for so long that I would never have anything like this… I still can’t believe it’s real…”

“I can imagine!” he said in good humor. “Not every girl is able to find herself a demigod as good-looking as I am!”

She laughed again, looking up at him with a wide grin. In his eyes, she saw that he had only been joking, but to her he was right: he was good-looking. It had taken a little while for him to grow on her, but she loved no eyes quite as much as his deep ones.

His gaze grew gentler again as he added: “Though I don’t think many men are able to find a woman as good-looking as you either…”

She blushed, relieved that he truly seemed to like everything about her.

“I’m proud to call you my wife,” he added sweetly, and she could only thank him with a kiss, once more wrapping her arms around his neck, though she leaned her full weight on him this time, pushing him back.

As he lay down, she realized how impractical his size was. She wasn’t even touching the floor anymore, just laying completely on top of him, her feet against his knees as the rest of her balanced over him – trying not to lose her balance as he suddenly chuckled.

“You look confused,” he remarked with a smile, and she chuckled too.

“You’re a bit big,” she admitted, and he gasped in mock-surprise.

“Me?”

She laughed again and poked him in the chest, to which he only laughed louder.

“It’s like climbing a mountain. If I fall off of you, I’m sure I’ll break my leg,” she joked.

He wrapped his arms around her again, holding her tightly in place.

“I’ll make sure not to let you fall then…”

His sweet words only encouraged her to kiss him again, and as she put her hands on his cheeks and pulled him a little closer to her own lips, he lifted her so she could reach him more easily.

They lay there for a good while, holding onto each other, the sound of drums in the distance as the village was still celebrating, and the two of them just kissing and giggling, feeling rather giddy about themselves.

Moana’s hair sometimes seemed to fall to the sides of his head like dark curtains, blocking the light of the fire pit as they kissed, and Maui loved being so close to her. He had always enjoyed spending time with her, but this was something else alright. Nothing could have prepared him for this, but when he noticed she was trembling, he was a little surprised.

“Are you cold?” he wondered immediately – finding it very hot in the room, and when he touched her cheek, he felt how she was burning up.

He immediately felt all his fears play up and he gasped as he realized what was going on. “Moana, you’re sick!”

At those words, however, she started laughing, and she pressed a kiss to his cheek.

“No, I’m not, silly!”

“You’re trembling and burning up at the same time!” he protested, holding her in his arms as he turned to the side, gently letting her slide to the ground again. “Do I need to get some medicine for you?”

She shook her head, still laughing. “No, silly, I’m just excited and it’s all very new. I feel better than ever, honestly!”

He frowned, not sure if he understood that, and as she put her hand on his cheek, she remarked: “You also feel a little hot yourself, you know…”

Feeling his own cheeks, he realized that she was right, and he knew that he was very unlikely to get sick. He was a little alarmed though. He had never known his own temperature to rise like that – at least not when he hadn’t been doing exhausting physical activity – and all they’d been doing was cuddling and kissing.

“Guess you’re right, curly,” he said slowly, trying to make some sense of it, but he was still worried about her. “And you’re sure you’re not sick?”

“Sick of you not kissing me,” she teased him, raising her eyebrow at him, and he chuckled before he leaned in and kissed her again, though this time he was the one hovering over her, careful not to lean his weight onto her. Last thing he wanted was to accidentally crush her.

Her hands didn’t remain still this time. She let her fingertips explore his torso, and the slight tickling sensation was the cause of goosebumps all over his body, and he was aware of the heat that was rising in his groin.

He pulled back slightly as he wanted to stop before he had to explain the bump underneath his ‘ie skirt, but Moana noticed how there was something definite about the way he was pulling back, like he didn’t want to continue kissing for now.

It disappointed her slightly, but at the same time she wouldn’t push for anything he wasn’t comfortable with.

“The drums are still rather loud in the distance,” he tried to distract his own thoughts more than hers. “Not sure if I can sleep like this…”

Sleep hadn’t been on her mind yet, even if she was getting a little tired. It had been a strange day indeed, and rest would do her good.

As he sat up again, she followed his movements with her eyes. After all their kissing, it was hard for her to stop her staring. She wondered if she would ever get used to his impressive size – and if whatever he kept hidden underneath his ‘ie was a reason for concern to her.

At her silence, he got up and took his blanket from the corner. He realized that it was too small for the both of them, but he still offered it to Moana as he lay down beside her again, though she seemed to insist on sharing it, putting it over him first before she crawled against his side.

“Blanket’s too small,” he muttered, letting her use his arm as a pillow, and he tried to put as much of the blanket over her as he could.

To Moana, he was being too generous, and she tried to offer him more of the blanket again, but he declined and instead wrapped his free arm around her waist.

“Moana?” he asked softly, and she looked at him in the faint light of the dying fire, curious what he wanted to say.

“If I would roll over onto you tonight, please punch me or something.”

She frowned, not sure why he would say such a thing.

“I don’t want to crush you,” he explained. “I could also sleep further away from you, just to be safe.”

“Don’t you dare,” she said strictly, not finding this conversation amusing at all. “You’re not going to crush me. If you can rest and wayfind at the same time without falling asleep, you can also sleep by my side without crushing me.”

He smiled at her words, realizing that she was probably right. He could be a light sleeper if he wanted to.

“But still,” he insisted softly. “If I am resting too much of my weight on you…”

She rolled her eyes. “I’ll let you know before I die, don’t worry.”

He was a little upset by her choice of words, and as she noticed his trembling lip, she suddenly felt bad for him.

Of course he wouldn’t like reminders of her mortality. She would probably prefer not to think of that either, if she was the one of the two of them with eternal life.

Not sure which words could ease his mind, she instead chose to kiss him again, and he closed his eyes as he allowed himself to enjoy it once more.

She was getting better at an alarming rate though, and by touching his chest with her gentle fingers and teasing her tongue over his bottom lip, she had his cheeks burning up for her again within a minute – along with another body part that seemed to want in on the action.

He pulled back from her lips again, and though she was surprised that he would refuse her kisses, she continued running her fingers over his skin, tracing the lines of his tattoos in the darkness of the room. Soon he was the one trembling against her, and he was starting to understand her trembling of before.

His body wanted more than his mind – and he figured that hers did as well. It had seemed like a great idea to take it slow, but he wasn’t sure for how long he’d be able to keep that up.

“We should get some sleep,” he said softly, successfully hiding the panic he felt within.

“Sure,” she replied sweetly, curling up against him, and he let out a soft, relieved sigh at that.

He knew that he desperately needed some advice. He had truly meant well when he had asked her to be his wife – and he was truly happy with the way things had unfurled that evening, but he was in way over his head. He just had this sinking sensation that if they tried anything – whenever that was – he would either hurt or disappoint her – and he wanted neither to happen. Even if he loved her, he didn’t want to lose face.

Luckily, he already had an idea on how to handle this situation. If anyone could help him out, it was his young, flirty friend. And if they could sleep through the night in peace, then first thing in the morning, he’d go and ask Affi for advice.


End file.
